Historical allegations go to trial

A man is on trial accused of sexually assaulting his niece and nephew during games of hide and seek.

The alleged historical sexual assaults date back to the mid1990s.

The man, whose name is suppressed, went on trial in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

The siblings were unaware of each other’s allegations until the sister confided in her parents, then her father told the son, who said it had happened to him too. They went to police in February last year. The man is accused of twice sexually assaulting his nephew – once in O¯ hakune, when the boy was 8 and the pair were playing hide and seek, and once in Masterton two years later.

‘‘I didn’t want to go tearing a family apart because obviously what he’s done is very serious,’’ the nephew told the court. ‘‘I hoped it was only me.

‘‘I never told anyone else about it. I hadn’t told my wife until it came out when I was talking to Dad about it.’’

He said he learned not to be alone with the man and he always kept the allegations to himself.

‘‘It comes back to being ashamed and not wanting people to know something like that has happened to you.’’

The niece remembered an incident, also during a game of hide and seek, when she was about 7 years old.

Another time, the man invited her into a room and she said she refused to go in alone.

She found it stressful to deal with as an adult and told her family.

Defence lawyer Steve Winter said the man accepted he acted inappropriately towards the niece, but disputed where the alleged incident happened.

The trial, before Judge Peter Rollo with no jury, continues today.