The Court of Appeal has dismissed a former teacher’s appeal, upholding his conviction for abducting and defiling his 12-year-old student, with whom he had entered into an intimate relationship.
Between February and May 2019, he secretly took her away from school or home on four occasions to hotels/motels for sexual encounters.
The last incident occurred on a weekend, and the man was exposed when the victim secretly disappeared from her home for a few hours and was later caught by her parents.
He was found guilty in the High Court of one count of statutory rape, three counts of defilement, and four counts of abduction.
He was sentenced to a total of 16 years of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 years.
In one of the grounds, the man argued that the conviction was unsafe because the victim’s testimony had contradictions, she delayed her complaint by 65 days, and she had previously lied to parents and teachers to hide school absences.
But the Appeals bench comprising the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isikeli Mataitoga and Justices Gerrard Winter and Gus Andrée Wiltens, on May 28, held that the 65-day delay was fully explained by the man’s position of authority, influence, and threats of punishment.
The judges said the minor discrepancies in her testimony (such as routes taken or clothes worn) were inconsequential and did not shake the foundation of the prosecution’s case.
Another argument was that the trial judge failed to provide sufficient reasons for finding the man unreliable and ignored the victim’s allegedly poor demeanour, but the bench emphasised that appellate courts must show customary caution toward a trial judge’s credibility findings. The bench said the trial judge saw and heard the witnesses firsthand and provided cogent reasons for rejecting the appellant’s unsupported alibi.
The Court of Appeal concluded that it was reasonably open to the trial judge to find the appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on all counts.
