Teen faces grilling about underage sex
A teenager allegedly kidnapped by police officers and sent to Australia against his will has been grilled in court about whether he had underage sex with his girlfriend.
Inspector Hurimoana Dennis and Sergeant Vaughan Perry are on trial in the High Court at Auckland over a mock arrest of the teen, who has name suppression.
In May 2015, it is alleged Dennis, a family friend, organised to have the 17-year-old picked up by another officer and taken to Auckland Central Police Station. While there, the teen was processed and locked in a cell by Dennis and Perry, the duty custody sergeant, as if he had been arrested.
He was then allegedly given an ultimatum - either start a new life in Australia, or be charged with statutory rape - and was put on a plane to Sydney believing he had no other choice.
The young man, then aged 17, had been in a relationship with a 15-year-old girl for around six months. Dennis had been trying to stop the pair from seeing each other, at the request of the boy’s family, who were concerned he was having underage sex. The boy has denied the relationship was sexual.
On Friday, Dennis’ lawyer Steve Bonnar began his cross examination of the teen by asking him when he started having sex with his girlfriend.
The young man replied that he didn’t want to comment on that.
Justice Edwin Wylie reminded the teen that he did not have to answer any questions that may incriminate him.
Bonnar repeated the question, and the teen again declined to comment.
‘‘Mr Bonnar, I can understand why you may say this is relevant,’’ said Justice Wylie, ‘‘But I don’t particularly want to go down this track too far.’’
Bonnar put it to the teen that his parents had been concerned for his wellbeing, but he was refusing to take their advice and end the relationship with his girlfriend. ‘‘Are you prepared ... to accept at all that your whanau were very concerned for you?’’ asked Bonnar.
‘‘Well at the time, yes, there was concern,’’ replied the teen from the witness box, ‘‘But by the same token, they were trying to break up my relationship with [ my girlfriend.]’’
The young man and his girlfriend are still together. The girlfriend’s identity is also suppressed.
Yesterday’s cross examination came after the teen told Crown Prosecutor Brian Dickey on Thursday, about the mock arrest that left him ‘‘traumatised’’.
He told Dickey he was left ‘‘cold, scared and helpless’’ in a police cell at Auckland Central Police Station, believing the arrest to be real. The next day, he was on a flight to Australia, paid for by his family. After spending seven weeks with relatives in Sydney against his will, he told Dickey he managed to ‘‘escape’’ back to New Zealand, but Dennis caught wind of his flight and met him at Auckland Airport.
The teen said he was turned around at the airport and put on a flight back to Sydney, where he received a ‘‘beating’’ from a relative. Eventually, with the assistance of his girlfriend’s family to acquire a new passport, he said he was able to make a second escape back to New Zealand. He said he had rung Immigration NZ from Sydney, and they advised him, contrary to Dennis’ instructions, that he was free to legally return to New Zealand whenever he pleased.
Yesterday, Bonnar contested the teen’s account of his mock arrest and alleged detainment in the cells.
He told the teen the defence argument was that ‘‘virtually none of what you say about what happened down at the cell blocks is true’’.
The teen had said previously he was locked in the cell for up to an hour and a half, but Bonnar argued Dennis had taken the young man on a cell visit that lasted a matter of minutes.
‘‘I suggest to you that you went downstairs with Hurimoana Dennis and you knew that this was a cell visit,’’ said Bonnar. ‘‘No,’’ replied the young man. The jury trial continues.