Defiant Kāpiti councillor guilty of indecent assault vows to continue in position

Kapiti Coast District councillor David Scott says he will not stand down from his position despite being found guilty of indecent assault against a female council staff member. Photo / Mark Mitchel

Defiant Kāpiti Coast district councillor David Scott is refusing to stand down from his position despite being found guilty of indecent assault against a female council staff member.

The 71-year-old said he had received more than 100 messages of support from ratepayers wanting him to remain at his post.

The jury at a trial at Wellington District Court took three and a half hours to reach the guilty verdict today.

The Crown had argued Scott pressed himself against a Kāpiti Coast District Council employee at a morning tea following a council meeting in April last year.

The female complainant rejected suggestions that what she felt pressing into her could have been a wallet, phone or insulin kit, rather than male genitalia.

She said what she felt was about four or five inches.

Under cross examination defence lawyer Mike Antunovic asked Scott's GP to measure the length of Scott's penis in a separate room. That measurement was suppressed.

Speaking to the Herald tonight, Scott said he would not attend a council meeting on Thursday but vowed to remain working as a councillor as he had not yet been convicted.

His lawyer asked that a conviction not be entered today and Judge Peter Hobbs agreed.

"I have never had a criminal conviction," Scott told the Herald. "I had a speeding ticket 38 years ago."

As he had been elected by the distict's 52,000 people he had no intention of stepping down.

"I will carry on.

"This is the worst thing that has happened in my life."

In her closing address, prosecutor Kate Feltham said the complainant was a professional woman who took her job seriously.

"The evidence she gave was given in a calm, coherent, logical way. She was sure of what happened."

Scott said outside court that his family would be devastated by the verdict.

"I haven't had any sleep for a year and two months."

The council's CEO Wayne Maxwell declined to comment tonight on Scott's future employment prospects.

Local Government New Zealand president Dave Cull has been approached for comment.

Scott has been remanded on bail until June 19 for sentencing.