Bestiality claim in case of jockey facing sex charges

A former Hastings jockey, facing multiple charges of sex with a young girl, persuaded a female friend to tell welfare authorities she had seen the girl having sex with a dog, Napier District Court was told today.

David John Frethey, 55, now a sickness beneficiary, has denied nine charges of rape and sexual assaults on the girl.

The offences are alleged to have begun when the girl was six, and Frethey also faces eight charges of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by attempting to discredit people he thought might give evidence against him.

During the third day of Frethey's jury trial a Hastings woman told the court Frethey paid her $30 to make an anonymous call to Child Youth and Family, alleging violence and other serious problems within the girl's family.

Emma Ngaronoa said Frethey gave her a piece of paper on which he had written the number she should call, and "the things he wanted me to say".

Frethey instructed her to make the call from a phone box, but she made it from her home phone

The conversation she had with the welfare call centre officer included allegations that a family friend had seen the girl's mother having sex with the young man who had fathered the girl's baby, while, in another room of the house, the girl was "having intercourse with a dog".

Another woman told the court Frethey got her to copy a letter he had written and post it to the girl's home. It included an accusation that the girl and her mother "are both mentally deranged".

A male friend of the girl's mother, Rob Willis, told the court a rock was thrown on the roof of his house one night, and next day he found a note in his letterbox instructing him "no texting, no phone calls, stay away from those people at . or we will have you charged with raping . PS: You will get what's coming to you, we have witnesses".

The Ministry of Social Development's fraud unit gave evidence to the court that an anonymous person had contacted the unit and accused Mr Willis and the girl's mother of living together as a married couple while she received the domestic purposes benefit. An investigation was done and the allegation was found to be untrue.

The girl, who has accused Frethey of serial rapes and physical assaults that continued until she was 14 before she became pregnant to someone else, told the court on Monday that Frethey began giving her alcohol when she was eight and cannabis when she was 10, in conjunction with the sexual assaults.

Prosecutor Steve Manning told the court, also on Monday, the mother threw Frethey out of her home after finding the girl smacking him on his bare buttocks with a stick, but Frethey went around telling people he had been diagnosed with cancer and garnering sympathy. She allowed him back into the house after he promised there would be no more such behaviour.

Frethey is represented by Russell Fairbrother, who has questioned why the girl did not make the sexual allegations against Frethey during her initial interview with police.

The prosecution case will end tomorrow.

- NZPA