Crown, defence wrap up in abuse case

THE lawyer of a man accused of raping his two stepdaughters over several years says the girls concocted the allegations because the defendant broke their mother’s heart.

The man, who has name suppression, has spent the week on trial in the Dunedin District Court facing 14 sex charges, including rapes.

Yesterday, after four days of evidence, both Crown and defence closed their cases.

Defence counsel David More said his client’s story was straightforward — it simply did not happen.

‘‘They turned on him because he walked out on their mother,’’ Mr More said.

The court previously heard how the defendant had left the Dunedin family home multiple times but in 2014 he moved to Mosgiel permanently.

In January 2015, the girls made disclosures of sexual abuse to their mother, but she did not believe them and they continued to spend some weekends at the man’s new home.

It was only in June, when the younger complainant talked to a friend, that teachers were alerted and then the police.

Initially, her older sister said nothing had happened to her, but some weeks later, she was interviewed by police and claimed she had been raped at least 50 times by the man.

Mr More suggested if even half of what the teens had said was true, the offending would have been uncovered significantly earlier.

And he also took issue with the similarity between the girls’ stories, despite the fact they each claimed never to have discussed the case together.

‘‘The allegations are remarkably similar,’’ Mr More said.

The complainants gave evidence the alleged abuse began with hugs and back rubs but progressed to molestation and rape.

‘‘The defendant wasn’t only the partner of [the complainants’ mother] but he became the father figure and, indeed, was called ‘dad’ by both girls in just over a year,’’ Crown prosecutor Marie Grills said.

‘‘They trusted him. They didn’t have a father figure in their lives and he became dad.’’

She said the long delay in the girls finally coming forward was typical in cases of this type.

Ms Grills expected the jury to have issues with the girls’ mother, who presented as a ‘‘complicated and not attractive person’’.

‘‘She was clearly in love with the defendant throughout,’’ she said.

Despite her daughters’ reluctance to spend time with the man, the woman would tell him they were keen to visit.

‘‘She really facilitated the defendant having access to her daughters, after they said [the abuse] was happening,’’ Ms Grills said.

The ultimate issue on which the Crown case turned, she said, was simply whether the jury believed the two teenagers.

The differing nature of their evidence gave them credibility, Ms Grills said.

The younger girl spoke in graphic detail when asked what had happened, while her sister was less forthcoming — ‘‘some one who had tried, it seems successfully, to shut it out’’.

The prosecutor also pointed to the fact the girls did not try to demonise their stepfather as evidence of their honesty.

‘‘These are not vindictive girls trying to create a story; trying to paint the defendant as black through and through. They’re girls caught between their mother’s emotion and the defendant’s manipulation,’’ Ms Grills said.

Judge Kevin Phillips will sum up the case on Monday before the jury begins deliberations.

rob.kidd@odt.co.nz