A Hutt Valley professional man charged with indecent acts on boys under 12 in a public toilet last year will face another trial after a jury failed to reach a verdict.
It was alleged the man had touched the bottom of an 11-year-old boy in a passageway near
the men's toilets in Lower Hutt's Westfield Shopping Centre on April 17.
He was also accused of touching the penis of an eight-year-old boy in the same toilets on June 24.
The jury deliberated for around five hours on Friday but was unable to reach a verdict.
Summing up, Crown Prosecutor Kristy McDonald QC said that if there had been only one complainant, the man's alleged actions would be easier to explain as a mistake.
She said the two complainants had never met, and had no reason to lie or embellish their evidence.
Defence counsel Paul Davison QC told the jury that while the man did not dispute speaking to the second boy in the bathroom, he had not touched him, and had no recollection of the first boy.
Mr Davison suggested that the accused had accidentally brushed against the first complainant in a hallway, and had given the second boy advice on how to use the urinal when he was having difficulty.
After the alleged second incident, the second boy had told his caregiver a man had helped him go to the toilet, and Mr Davison said the caregiver, and later the boy's parents and the police had jumped to hasty conclusions that the man had touched the boy.
Mr Davison criticised the police handling of the complaints, after police admitted they had not attempted to analyse CCTV footage of the passageway to the bathroom or to identify a man who was thought to be in the bathroom when the second alleged incident took place.
Name suppression continues for the man, due to his high profile within his profession.
A District Court spokesperson said a jury callover would take place at the end of January ahead of the retrial.
- NZPA
