Businessman on sex charges fails in bid to alter bail
A wealthy and prominent New Zealand businessman facing indecent assault and corruption charges has failed in his bid to vary his bail conditions.
The man has been on bail for more than three years after initially being charged with indecent assault in February 2017.
He has also continues to maintain interim name suppression, despite opposition by the Herald and Stuff.
On Friday, the businessman’s lawyer, Queen’s Counsel David Jones, asked Justice Geoffrey Venning to vary his client’s bail conditions.
The application sought to alter the condition limiting contact between the wealthy Kiwi and his business manager, who is charged alongside him with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The manager’s lawyer, Rachael Reed QC, was also at the hearing.
However, in his decision released to the Herald on Sunday, Justice Venning dismissed the variation application. Section 19 of the Bail Act prevents the Herald on Sunday from publishing further details about the hearing or any of the material and legal arguments contained in Justice Venning’s ruling.
The well-known New Zealander was due to stand trial in June. It was abandoned due to social distancing conditions imposed on the justice system to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite facing serious criminal charges, however, the man has been allowed to travel overseas, the Herald earlier revealed. He has not been ordered to surrender his passport and sources say he travelled as far as Europe before the Covid-19 crisis.
The Herald on Sunday understands police have offered no opposition to the wealthy Kiwi requesting to fly out of New Zealand to fulfil his business interests.
After first being charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a man in 2008, the businessman was then accused of indecently assaulting a second man in 2016.
He was also later charged with two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice for allegedly trying to dissuade the second complainant from giving evidence at his trial. The attempted perversion charges were laid alongside his business manager and a well-known entertainer.
The prominent Kiwi, his manager, and the entertainer had faced an initial jury trial in the Auckland District Court during March last year. But the trial was aborted by Judge Russell Collins after nearly two weeks of evidence, the reasons for which remain suppressed.
A new trial is now due to be held in February in the High Court at Auckland. A well-known political figure — whose name is suppressed and who has not been charged — may also give evidence for the Crown.