Source: Radio New Zealand
Michael Ian Mclean in Auckland District Court. RNZ / Finn Blackwell
Warning: This story discusses graphic details of sexual abuse
A judge has told jurors in the trial of a man accused of sexually abusing a boy into his teenage years that their deliberation will depend on the reliability of key witness evidence.
Michael Ian Mclean has been on trial in the Auckland District Court, facing 33 charges, including performing indecent acts on a person under 16, grooming and sexual violation.
His defence call the allegations nonsense, claiming they never happened.
Judge Simon Lance summed up the case on Wednesday. He took the jury through their function in deciding on a verdict, as well as guiding them through a recap of arguments on both sides.
Judge Lance pointed jurors to evidence given by Mclean and his alleged victim, who could not be named.
“Your deliberations and your ultimate verdicts will – I suggest, as is often the case in trials as such as this and subject to the legal directions I give you – depend largely on what you make of the credibility and the reliability of these two critical witnesses,” Lance told the jury.
He reminded jurors of the evidence given by both Mclean and the complainant.
Lance noted the detail in the complainant’s evidence and how, when cross-examined by Mclean’s defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC on if he was lying, he said he could not make up that level of detail.
In Mclean’s evidence, he said the allegations were not true and that the physical acts alleged did not happen, Lance told jurors.
“Mr Mclean was cross-examined and, during that cross-examination, he maintained his position, he maintained his stance that these things simply did not happen.”
Jurors were taken through material about the misconceptions of sexual abuse, something the judge alluded to at the beginning of the trial.
“You will recall that, at the very start of the trial, given the nature of it – that is, it involves allegations of sexual offending – I gave you a generic direction about there being no such thing as a typical sexual offence, no such thing as a typical offender, no such thing as a typical person who is offended against,” Lance told jurors.
The jury has retired for deliberation.
Sexual Violence
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
