A Dunedin 85-year-old who allegedly abused six girls over the course of two decades exhibited “a pattern of behaviour”, the Crown says.
Murray Oscar Kannewischer has spent the past week on trial before the Dunedin District Court after denying 23 sex charges.
This morning, after the Crown called its last witness, two charges of indecency were dismissed by Judge Michael Crosbie due to lack of evidence.
Defence counsel John Westgate said his client opted not to give or call evidence.
In his closing, he said the fact two of the charges in relation to one complainant had been dropped was “very important”.
“That directly affects her overall reliability and credibility,” Mr Westgate said.
He told the jury there were a variety of reasons which meant they could not be convinced of Kannewischer's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
“Suspicion [of guilt] is not enough.”
Evidence from the complainants was either completely unreliable, vague, inconsistent, illogical, was unbelievable or exaggerated, Mr Westgate said.
One woman he said, claimed to have been molested, yet gave no evidence of how it felt.
“That is not a peripheral matter, that is right at the issue . . . and she didn't say a thing,” he said.
In closing the prosecution case, Craig Power said the issue of memory would be pertinent since the complainants had discussed incidents as long as 54 years ago.
“Our memories do fade, but you still do remember things that happen in our lives in your childhood,” he said.
“Significant events, emotional events, unusual events; common sense life experience might tell you those things we do remember.”
While the Crown expected the defence to pick up on minor inconsistencies in the women's testimony, Mr Power said there was nothing significant to cause the jury concern.
“Their evidence has that ring of truth, that ring of consistency about it,” he said.
“There's no reason why you can't convict. There's no reason why you can't be sure, just because there's been a length of time, just because they were talking about events when they were children.”
He alerted the jury to commonalities in the evidence given by the complainants.
One said Kannewischer raped her while his wife was in hospital giving birth.
Another also said she was abused when the woman was receiving medical treatment on another occasion.
At least four of the witnesses claimed the defendant had performed indecent acts on them while he was intoxicated.
Mr Power said jurors could use the similarities to corroborate the claims of the complainants.
During the trial some of the witnesses spoke about things Kannewischer had said to them.
He allegedly told two of them the abuse would help them become a woman, others he asked “Does that feel good?”
“Those phrases, you might think that's just not something you'd make up,” Mr Power said. “We're talking about real events here."
Judge Crosbie will sum up the case tomorrow before the jury retires to deliberate.
