Crown closes its case in MIS deputy's trial

The crown closed its case yesterday against Masterton Intermediate School deputy principal Russell Thompson, 46, on trial for the alleged indecent touching of a 12-year-old pupil.
Thompson's defence lawyer, Paul Paino, has given a list of about 10 potential defence witnesses that he may call today, including many teachers, MIS principal Frazer Mailman, and Thompson's daughter.
Yesterday the first prosecution witness called was a 13-year-old female friend of the complainant, who said on May 4 her friend asked her if she would help shift some stuff with "Mr T", or Thompson, at lunchtime.
When the three of them left for the "focus room", the witness said she carried a guitar, the complainant carried something, and Thompson carried "a clipboard and some keys".
The witness said after they arrived at the "focus room" with the gear, Thompson "told me to go to back to get a guitar".
The witness said when she returned with the guitar after first stopping to pick up some "seeds" from her bag to munch on Thompson and the complainant "had moved the desks and sorted things".
She said Thompson then "told me to go back and get some bags or another guitar I can't remember".
When she got back, the witness said, "everything had been sorted and Mr T wanted to talk to (the complainant)" about a boy in her class and an incident of misbehaviour he might have been involved with.
"I offered to tell some things, but he just wanted to talk to (the complainant) alone."
The witness said the bell rang while Thompson and the complainant were talking about the boy.
The witness said she had left for class and the complainant had stayed to talk with Thompson.
The witness said she next saw the complainant three or four minutes later in the cloakroom, and "she told me that she needed to tell me something" with no one else around.
Prosecutor Kate Feltham said after that conversation which was not allowed to be described
"She was a bit shaken up and she wasn't herself. She wasn't all bubbly and happy like she normally is."
When someone asked what was wrong with the complainant, the witness said, "I told them that I had poked (the complainant) in the eye on accident".
She said this was "so no one else would get suspicious about why she was crying".
The complainant kept crying and the witness said she "had to keep telling her, 'it's okay, we'll tell someone'".
In cross-examination, Mr Paino asked if the witness "went along" with the idea of the two girls helping Thompson and the witness said, "yes, it's just a normal thing to do".
Mr Paino asked if it "wasn't surprising" that Thompson had asked her to go back for the other guitar, as she had already carried over the first one.
The witness said, "I thought it was funny because I thought he could have carried it."
Asked what Thompson was carrying, the witness said, "I think he was carrying a clipboard and some keys."
Mr Paino referred to the witness' depositions statement where she had agreed he might have also carried something else, and the witness said, "he could have been".
The next witness was the complainant's mother and the public, who had been excluded because of the first witness' age, were allowed back into the courtroom.
The complainant's mother gave evidence that her daughter had come to see her at her workplace after school, which she said was normal for a Friday.
"I could see that she was very upset."
She said her daughter had a "red, blotchy face" as if she had been crying, and said she wanted to speak to her alone.
The mother had asked the complainant if she wanted to go to her office to talk.
In there the mother "gave (the complainant) a big cuddle, and she started crying a lot".
After the complainant had spoken to her, the mother said she "told her it would be all right and we would go and see Dad".
The mother said there was a knock on her office door and someone said a client from that morning was there to see her.
She said she asked her daughter to wait in an empty office and she "instantly went round behind the desk and crouched on the floor".
"From that I could see she was very, very upset."
She said she had asked the complainant if she wanted to sit in the chair, but "she said, 'no, Mum, I just want to stay down here'."
The next witness was Detective Constable Grant Collins, who said he had gone to Masterton Intermediate School to prevent a "breach of the peace", after a phone call from the complainant's father, who had told police he was going to the school to find out what had happened.
While there he spoke briefly to the complainant's mother, and relayed the substance of the story to Thompson, who had said, "I can't understand why this has happened. I can't understand why she said that."
Mr Collins introduced a 90-minute video interview with Thompson, which was played to the court.
In cross-examination, Mr Paino asked why police hadn't spoken to the teacher who had first seen the complainant after the alleged incident, or to other teachers at the school.
Mr Collins answered: "In an ideal world, we could saturate the inquiry with information, but priorities have to be made, and resources &
"It was an allegation that had polarised a community, and feelings for the accused were very strong.
"I believed it was not necessary to ask a lot of people about what had polarised the community.
"Every time you interview someone you ask them questions and you give away information.
"Ultimately, it was void. The teacher couldn't make any comment on it, because they weren't there."
Mr Paino said, they were there two minutes afterwards when she went back to class.
"& and you couldn't know if someone was polarised, could you, unless you talked to them?"
Mr Collins answered, "we decided not to talk to the teacher."
The prosecution then rested their case, and Judge Stephen Harrop ordered the court cleared, as he had some things to discuss with the prosecutor and defence lawyer in chambers.