Social worker's texts admit guilt

It is alleged Joseph took the teen to the cinema and spent the rest of the day drinking. Photo / Supplied

A female social worker effectively admitted through text messages she had sex with a teenage boy she was mentoring, the Crown says.

Alexia Joseph, 30, is on trial before Manukau District Court after denying a charge of having unlawful sexual connection with the then 15-year-old.

The defendant had been working for the Waipareira Trust for less than two months when the alleged incident took place in September 2013.

Closing the Crown case this morning, prosecutor Evan McCaughan pointed out several text messages between Joseph and the boy, which he said indicated her guilt.

"Those text messages alone provide significant support for [the complainant's] account," he said. "You can rely on her own words to find her guilty."

It is alleged Joseph took the teen to the cinema on the day in question, something mentors were encouraged to do to build trust.

But afterwards, the court heard how they met up with the complainant's mother and spent the rest of the day drinking.

Joseph dropped off the other woman at home and continued with the "troubled teen" to Oakwood Manor motor lodge in Mangere where she booked a large studio room.

Earlier in the trial, the complainant told the jury how she persuaded him to join her in bed.

He told police he had repeatedly asked Joseph if she was sure she wanted to have sex and she had reassured him.

Though the incident only lasted 10 seconds, according to the boy, he had immediately felt uncomfortable and texted his mother,

"This day still haunts me ... f*** it still comes back," he said.

Mr McCaughan highlighted text messages sent by the defendant after the event.

"I forgot to say sorry for the other night ... actually I didn't want to apologise, I wanted to know how you felt about that," she sent.

"This is effectively an admission they had sex in the motel room that night," the prosecutor said.

The boy told her he loved her to which she later replied: "If I told you exactly how I felt I'd probably get sacked ... but every other part of me is 100 per cent real honest."

"I do feel a little the same as you."

While in the witness box, Joseph gave innocent explanations for the messages but Mr McCaughan labelled them a "sequence of self-serving lies".

"Her entire evidence was a deliberate strategy to try and answer the police case," he said.

The prosecutor told the jury she had lied to several people during the investigation and suggested they place no weight on her evidence.

The defence will close its case before the judge sums up and the jury retires to deliberate.

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