Man found not guilty of indecency

A 20-year-old man from Rolleston, near Christchurch, has been found not guilty on a charge of performing an indecent act in front of two women in the street.

Patrick Frederick Walsh, a sales assistant, denied the charge, saying he was not the person the women saw in a suburban street on a night in December. The offender bared his chest at them, then his buttocks, then turned and masturbated in front of them.

Defence counsel David Goldwater called evidence from Walsh’s mother and stepfather that their son had been home that night, at the Rolleston house where they lived, and had been watching a disaster movie with family at the time the offence was committed.

Goldwater did not challenge the details of the incident but questioned whether one of the women was clear enough in her identification.

One woman had picked out Walsh from a police photomontage about six weeks after the incident. The other woman was unable to identify him in the same montage.

Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders said he could not accept that the identification evidence had reached the required standard of beyond reasonable doubt to establish that Walsh was the offender.

‘‘It has been well known that an honest witness may be a mistaken witness,’’ said the judge.

Walsh’s mother had answered questions frankly. While she was clearly concerned about the allegation, she would not give false evidence to protect her son. Given the alibi evidence, the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt had not been reached.