The father of two girls out of jealousy falsely accused an elderly man of sexually assaulting them, Wellington District Court was told today.
The 72-year-old defendant said in a taped interview to police played to jurors he was told to stay away from the sisters, as the father was jealous the girls' mother "had more time for me than she did for him".
The girls were like his own children and he "had more love for those kids than their own parents".
"Both of them wanted me to be their dad. They didn't want their dad to be their dad," he said.
The sex allegations were untrue and would have been put in the girls' heads by their father, he said.
The accused has denied sexually violating and committing an indecent act on one of the sisters, a mentally-impaired girl in her early teens. He was also accused of indecently assaulting the girl's younger sister, who was aged between nine and 10 at the time. The girls' parents, who had separated prior to the alleged offending, both gave evidence today and said the accused, a family friend, was like an uncle to their daughters.
Their father said he had told the accused to stay away from his daughters after learning the man had been picking them up from school without their parents' permission.
The accused had also pretended to be the girls' father and uncle and taken them out of school, for two days in the case of the older girl, and three days for the younger, the court was told.
The younger girl yesterday told the court the accused would kiss her on the mouth and touch her legs while driving her home from school, something he did on about 10 separate occasions.
The girl said she was too scared to tell her eldest sister or father, so she told several of her friends instead. Police began investigating after one of them told her parents.
The accused man's lawyer, Noel Sainsbury, repeatedly suggested to the girl she was lying about the sexual assaults -- suggestions she emphatically denied.
The girl's mentally-impaired elder sister told the court on Monday how the man would pick her up from outside her Wellington school, drive her to the zoo carpark and molest her. He would then give her money and drop her off.
The trial was expected to finish tomorrow.
