Plan devised

Intermediate school students admitted they lied that their teacher indecently assaulted girls so he would be fired after yelling at them in class, a court heard.

The admission came when two students gave evidence in court after police charged the teacher.

Despite the admissions that they made the story up, the teacher has lost his job and feels a 40-year career is in ruins.

Police said it was disappointing when untruthful accusations were made but they were obligated to act when children said they were assaulted.

The teacher, whose name is suppressed, was on trial for seven charges of indecent assault at his Auckland school.

The Crown case was that the teacher inappropriately touched three girls in his class, each aged 11 years.

‘‘The defendant stroked the students’ hair in an indecent manner, swiped his hand over the chest area of two of the victims and grabbed the breasts of another victim,’’ prosecutor Jo Murdoch said.

Lies confessed

But during cross-examination by defence lawyer Marc Corlett, QC, one of the girls admitted she had lied, and the teacher had never assaulted her. She said she had also lied about seeing the teacher assault any other student.

She had later confessed the lies to her mother.

‘‘I was an idiot,’’ she said. ‘‘My friend told me that she got touched and I pretended to believe her.’’

A boy who initially claimed he witnessed the indecencies admitted there had been a plan to make up stories about the teacher to get him fired after he had told them off during class for misbehaving and being disrespectful.

‘‘I joined in because my friends were there and I wanted to support them and because I didn’t really want to put up with any of that other stuff,’’ he said.

The two other girls continued to claim they had been indecently assaulted and the Crown said there was no evidence of collusion between the students.

The jury at the six-day trial in the Auckland District Court in March took less than an hour to find the teacher not guilty on all charges. The teacher admitted that on March 23, 2017, he lost his temper in class after students began painting their hands and arms black.

He swore at the students, and there was a tense standoff in the classroom.

That, Corlett says, is when the students devised a plan to get the teacher fired.

Within days they had made their complaint to a fellow teacher and police began investigating.

The teacher was charged in July.

Outside of court Corlett said it was clear the accusations were false.

‘‘It was obvious from the video interviews that were conducted by the police of two of the complainants and two so-called ‘eyewitnesses’ that their stories were hopelessly vague, inconsistent and implausible.

‘‘They were irreconcilable with each other,’’ Corlett said.

‘‘Hundreds of hours of police resources and six days of jury time were wasted getting to what were inevitable not-guilty verdicts – all of which could have been avoided had the police approached the allegations with a healthy scepticism instead of swallowing whole what were obviously false accounts, Corlett said.

The teacher, speaking after he was cleared of the charges, said his dismissal and the months since had been his worst nightmare.

‘‘After 40 years as a teacher, and 27 years at this school I was dismissed within a few days of the allegations being made – allegations which have now been shown to be false, and deliberately made to get me fired,’’ he said.

He said it had been a ‘‘terrible ordeal’’ despite having support from family and friends.

‘‘It was devastating to sit in the dock while listening to one complainant admit she had lied, while another one admitted there was a plan to make up stories to get me fired.

‘‘Their plan worked. I now have to try to put back together the pieces of my life.’’

Detective Senior Sergeant Geoff Barber said it was disappointing when members of the public became victims of untruthful accusations.

‘‘It is important that police take allegations of indecent assault against any person seriously, especially those involving children.’’