A man who faces a string of historical sex charges has been described as a good man who "liked the ladies" but was unlikely to act inappropriately towards anyone.
The comments were made by a defence witness in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday, during the trial of a 63-year-old former Bay of Plenty man. The man's name is suppressed.
The man has denied all 50 historical sexual abuse charges against him. The complainants were aged between 5 and 16 at the time of offending that allegedly occurred from the 1970s to the late 1980s.
The trial began in late October and so far the jury has heard from nine female complainants, who alleged they were sexually assaulted to varying degrees by the man. Yesterday the defence opened its case, with defence lawyer Tiffany Cooper expected to call about four witnesses.
One was a former colleague of the accused, who had worked with him for about five years.
