A Mosgiel man who pleaded guilty to sexually grooming a 14-year-old girl online has now denied the charge at the eleventh hour.
Evan Hedley Smith (63) appeared for a scheduled sentencing yesterday but the Dunedin District Court heard that in recent Probation interviews the defendant had said he did not believe the person he was communicating with online was underage. The defendant was messaging an undercover police officer.
In the pre-sentence interview the defendant said he would be open to undertaking treatment but was unable to identify any specific behaviour he needed to address.
Judge Michael Crosbie said Smith's stance contradicted his earlier guilty plea and inherent acceptance of the facts and consequently it would be ''quite wrong'' to proceed to sentencing.
He vacated the defendant's guilty plea and the conviction. Smith was remanded on bail and will appear in court again at the end of November.
