Indecent assault charge dismissed

A Southland dairy farm worker had a charge of indecent assault dropped after a judge said there was no useful purpose in continuing with the case, two years after the incident happened.

Supporters of Jonnice T.J Destanar Pennicott, 27, of Edendale, clapped in the public gallery when the charge was dismissed by Judge Thomas Ingram in a defended hearing in the Gore District Court on Wednesday.

The court heard that on the morning of December 16, 2021, Pennicott entered the bedroom of the complainant, who was aged 15 at the time, and cannot be named. He had been working on the dairy farm and was wearing his wet-weather gear, which was wet and covered in excrement.

The complainant told Pennicott she was naked. He said he was ‘’freezing’’, she should be at work, and asked for a charger for his vape. He tried to get under her blankets, before rubbing his hands on her face, arms and shoulders, and then left the room.

The complainant said she froze, then went to the bathroom. She told her friend about the incident and two days later told her mother. In court, part of the complainant’s videoed interview about the incident was played.

Pennicott’s lawyer, Jono Ross, invited the court to dismiss the case on the basis that there would be no useful purpose in proceeding, but Judge Ingram accepted the Crown’s argument there was sufficient evidence to continue.

Under cross-examination, the complainant said she could not remember when she told the defendant she was naked, or whether her bedding was wet or soiled from his wet-weather gear.

Judge Ingram said the incident had been a ‘’frightening experience’’ for the complainant with the defendant coming into her personal space, but he did not believe there was any sexual intent or motive.

The competing inference was that Pennicott was a “malingerer’’ and ‘’the plausible explanation that could not be excluded was that all he was doing was rough-housing or playing with the complainant to demonstrate that he was the one that had been out working in the cold and she was lucky to be in bed on a cold morning,’’ Judge Ingram said.

The incident was a result of Pennicott’s ‘’poor social judgment’’, the judge said. Judge Ingram said he had ‘’real and substantial doubt that the assault in these circumstances would be thought of as indecent by right thinking members of the community’’.