Jury considers sex case verdicts

The jury in the case of a 73-yearold man accused of historical sex offences against two children will resume its deliberations today.

Graham Simpson is charged with 10 counts of sexual offending against a boy and a girl. The jury retired to consider its verdict yesterday before being sent home for the night.

The trial began last Monday in the New Plymouth District Court before Judge Gregory Hikaka.

The Crown says Simpson sexually assaulted the girl on a number of occasions between 2015 and 2018, while she was aged 12 to 14.

He has been further accused of sexually assaulting the boy from 2016 to 2018. The boy was 11 when the alleged abuse began, although this age was contested by the defence.

The defence said Simpson accepted that the sexual conduct described by the complainants was ‘‘indecent and utterly repugnant’’, but no offences were committed by him. There was no forensic evidence, or eyewitnesses, to back up the alleged offending, which was heard to have mostly occurred at Simpson’s home.

Prosecutor Cherie Clarke told the jury that Simpson had groomed the pair before going on to sexually abuse them. He bought alcohol and cigarettes for the girl a number of times, and also supplied her with cannabis. He drank beer with the boy.

Simpson denied buying the girl alcohol but later admitted doing so on one occasion after he was caught on CCTV.

Clarke said Simpson took a keen interest in the children’s lives, made them feel special and would often offer them massages.

Simpson’s evidence in the trial was inconsistent and unreliable, Clarke said.

He had also been caught out in a ‘‘self-serving lie’’ when he made an unsuccessful bid for name suppression, she alleged.

During Simpson’s evidence, he had tried to ‘‘blacken the character’’ of the girl, Clarke claimed.

The girl was once a ‘‘bright student’’, but her behaviour at school and home deteriorated and she began to self-harm, and use drugs and alcohol. Clarke alleged that her conduct was the result of Simpson’s abuse, and that he was isolating her.

Defence lawyer Kylie Pascoe said Simpson had been used as a ‘‘scapegoat’’ for her bad behaviour. Accusing him of the abuse only came about after a third party ‘‘planted the seed’’, Pascoe alleged.

The girl was asked if she was being abused by Simpson, and this ‘‘gave her a ‘get out of trouble free’ card’’, Pascoe said. She had never before made such a disclosure.

Initially, the girl did not want to make a police complaint, but Pascoe alleged that pressure from family saw her do so.

In February 2019, Simpson was arrested and charge with abusing the girl. Then, 22 months later, he was arrested and charged with sex crimes against the boy.

Pascoe claimed that the boy had made a false complaint to support the girl. But the Crown said a delay in complaints was common with child sex cases, and the boy had been embarrassed. There was no evidence of collusion between the pair.

The complainants’ evidence was unreliable, Pascoe claimed, adding that the girl had ‘‘slipped up a number of times’’ while giving her ‘‘evolving’’ story. Simpson was physically incapable of the alleged offending, Pascoe added.

The defence called witnesses to speak to the ‘‘good character’’ of Simpson, who was a solo father and had led a ‘‘blemish-free life’’.