The accused, aged in his early 70s, was alleged to have used his position of power as a leader in the scouting community to sexually abuse boys on camps and tramps where nudity was encouraged between the 1980s and 2010s.
His identity continues to be suppressed by the courts until a verdict is reached.
Today the Crown and defence have closed their arguments in the four-week trial in the Wellington District Court before Judge Peter Hobbs.
The Crown said the man exposed himself and forced masturbation, and anal and oral sex with scouts while in his care on the trips.
He would also touch boys’ feet and reward scouts for going barefoot, play chasing games, and wrestle with scouts.
Hislop said the man used his position of power to target vulnerable people, namely one scout who “desperately wanted to be cool” and another who sought validation from a father figure he never had.
She said the sexualised actions of the man, encouraging nudity and bare feet on trips where a “Bear Grylls tough man culture” was developed, “shifted the baseline” for what was deemed appropriate.
She added that the man promoted this culture and “took advantage” for his own sexual needs.
Hislop said the Crown wasn’t denying the man had played a large role in many scouts’ lives, some in a positive way, but argued the evidence before the courts was to prove the charges.
The man kept photos of naked boys that were taken on scout trips, other photos he had taken of boys described as “glamour shots”.
Some were developed, stored, and scanned into the man’s computer.
At the beginning of the trial, Crown prosecutor Mark Shaw told the court the man would be referred to by the scouts he led with a special nickname, and many saw him to be a father figure over his decades-long involvement.
Graphic descriptions of the alleged offending were reiterated in Hislop’s closing address, including a game of chase that ended when the man pressed his erect penis against a scout’s back, as well as accounts of rape, telling his then-young victim “come on all the kids are doing it”.
The accused’s lawyer Mike Antunovic, however, said the evidence of witnesses was “inherently unbelievable” and the allegations were “nonsense”. He said of one witness that his evidence “was pure fiction”.
Antunovic said today in his closing address it was vital the jury understood the burden of proof did not rest on his client, but the Crown, and that the prosecution had failed to prove the man’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The scout master claimed through Antunovic that the moment his charges were read aloud to the court three weeks ago was the “most humiliating” moment in his life.
He said the moment the 26 charges alleging sexual abuse against boys were read out to a courtroom full of strangers more than three weeks ago was the “most humiliating” moment in his client’s life.
Antunovic said the nude images were just a few of the 22,000 images his client had taken while involved with scouts from his own childhood through to his adult life, and would sit in a shoe box, “never to be looked at again”.
He said his client was “driven by sincere desire, passion even, to give kids a good experience and some fun”.
Antunovic said a number of the accounts from the men alleging abuse were “fabricated” or exaggerated, and when it came to nudity on camps that was a reflection of the era.
“These were times when things were different in many ways,” Antunovic said.
Antunovic brought up the idea of contamination of witnesses and said complainants’ memories could have been potentially coloured by the police investigation.
He said complainants had previously described his client as a “barefoot hippie uncle” and spoke fondly of the scoutmaster.
Antunovic said his client was committed to his role in Scouts NZ and would give his scouts “the best opportunities”, in some instances caring for the young men more so than their parents.
The man faces more than 26 charges for alleged offences against six boys between the 1980s and 2010s, with around 16 of those charges involving indecent acts with boys aged between 12 and 16.
Judge Hobbs will sum up the case tomorrow before the jury retires to consider its verdict.
