Rape accused found not guilty

A key plank to the rape cases was the fact both girls tested positive for chlamydia after one of them reported being raped by Tautari.

A Manawatu man has been found not guilty of child assault and rape charges after a trial in which the Crown said the fact the complainants had chlamydia proved he was a rapist.

Robert Tautari, 24, hugged a Corrections officer in the dock as the jury walked out of the Palmerston North District Court on Monday afternoon, after they found him not guilty of seven charges related to offences against three children in wider Manawatu in 2013 and 2014.

The jury unanimously found him not guilty of twice assaulting the boy, but majority verdicts were required to find him not guilty of indecently assaulting one girl, and raping and violating that girl and one other.

The verdicts were returned soon after the jury asked for a direction from Judge Stephanie Edwards about delivering majority verdicts. They deliberated for about 20 hours.

Tautari will be back in court in October though, after pleading guilty before the trial to assaulting one of the girls and a different child.

The different child was assaulted with a spatula - the same item Tautari was accused of using to assault the boy on one occasion.

All of the children involved were known to Tautari prior to the alleged offences.

The Crown said Tautari raped the two girls when he had the chance, and hit the boy because he was someone who lashed out when angry. A key plank to the rape cases was the fact both girls tested positive for chlamydia after one of them reported being raped by Tautari.

In her closing address, Crown prosecutor Erin Fitzherbert said both girls had similar stories about what had happened to them, which strengthened each other’s version of events.

While medical records could not show if Tautari had chlamydia at the time or not, a test on his partner from around that time came back negative for the sexually-transmitted infection.

Tautari said in his police interview that his partner may have had a sexually-transmitted infection. Defence lawyer Tony Thackery said it was a case of Tautari getting a discussion he had with his partner about the test confused.

Thackery said the case had been built around that statement, while both girls could have got chlamydia through sexual activity with someone else.