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Home / New Zealand

Disabled woman lying about indecent assault, says lawyer

Amelia Wade
By Amelia Wade
Political reporter·NZ Herald·
28 Apr, 2017 01:24 AM4 mins to read

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A teacher is on trial in the Auckland District Court for assaulting a disabled woman. Picture / Nick Reed

A teacher is on trial in the Auckland District Court for assaulting a disabled woman. Picture / Nick Reed

The disabled woman who was allegedly indecently assaulted by a teacher lied about wearing skimpy dresses around her housing complex so shouldn't be trusted, a lawyer says.

Lagos Juan Carlos Briones is on trial inthe Auckland District Court. The 56-year-old foreign languages teacher denied one charge of indecent assault.

The Crown alleges after the woman invited him into her apartment for a coffee, he moved her walker away so she depended on him for help, led her to the bedroom and rubbed her genitals.

The woman said she didn't protest because she hadn't taken her medication.

Prosecutor Erin Woolley said the woman didn't positively consent which is required under New Zealand law.

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But the defence said by taking off her own dress and kissing Briones' back, the woman was consenting or at least Briones honestly believed she was.

During the five-day trial, the jury heard on the morning of Auckland Anniversary Day last year, Briones took a CD to the woman's house. She invited him in for a coffee so they could enjoy it together.

Shortly after he was inside, he allegedly told her to sit in her La-Z-Boy rocker armchair and moved her walker out of reach and touched her breasts.

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The woman said she was unhappy with what happened but because she hadn't had her medication yet and her mind "wasn't there at the time".

"I thought he was a friend and he took advantage of me," she said giving evidence.

After rubbing her on her rocking chair, Briones allegedly then led her to her bedroom.

There they lay on the bed together and kissed before he sucked her breasts and rubbed her genital area, the prosecutor said.

"He then told her, 'No one needs to know about this'."

To make him stop, the woman told him she was bleeding and her sister was coming over shortly.

"I only said that to get him off me," the woman said in her interview.

During her closing address this morning, Woolley asked the jurors why Briones told her to keep quiet if he honestly believed the woman was consenting.

"Consider his knowledge of [the woman], he's educated and knew she was disabled and vulnerable - he always saw her with her walker."

Woolley said Briones moved the walker away from her so she was solely dependant on him to move around.

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She urged the jurors to consider the woman's perspective when deciding their verdict and not rely on what they themselves would do in the situation.

"Her life is lived and experienced somewhat differently from you and I."

Woolley said the foreign languages teacher was also not a credible witness during the "he said, she said" trial and had proven this by saying one thing to the police and another in the courtroom.

In his police interview, the man told police it was a case of "mistaken identity" and denied the touching altogether.

Yet when he gave evidence, he accepted it happened but that it was consensual and "two people realising they liked each other and coming closer".

On the other hand, Woolley said the woman had been "almost honest to a fault" and so the jurors should accept her version of events.

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Defence lawyer Michael Meyrick said the woman wasn't credible because when she was on the stand she was adamant she didn't wear skimpy clothing around the complex.

However, three witnesses testified that she did.

"She's not that simple, ladies and gentleman. She doesn't have that much of a disability. She knows what she was saying. She knows what she was doing," Meyrick told the jurors. "She's not confused, she's not mistaken - she's lying."

The woman took off her own dress, lay on the bed naked and kissed Briones' back, Meyrick said.

"But there are positive things here - she took off her dress, lay on bed, kissed him. You can't get more positive action than that."

People often lied to the police for different reasons, Meyrick said, and told the jurors Brione's interview "doesn't have any relevance".

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What they should decide their verdict on was what he said in the courtroom.

Judge Brooke Gibson sent the jurors to deliberate their verdict at midday.

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