Karla Cardno's father denies sex charges

Gary John Duffin, left and Sharyn Lee Hills charged in the High Court with sex and drug charges,...
Gary John Duffin, left and Sharyn Lee Hills charged in the High Court with sex and drug charges, Wellington. Photo by NZPA.
The father of a murdered Lower Hutt schoolgirl and his wife invited two teenage girls to their Wellington brothel, gave them cannabis and sexually violated one of them, a High Court jury was told today.

In her opening address at the trial of Gary John Duffin and his wife Sharyn Lee Hills , crown prosecutor Jo Murdoch said the couple suggested to the girl they were to sexually violate that she have their baby.

They subsequently employed the 14-year-old as a prostitute for three or four months.

Duffin and Hills each face a total of 10 charges of supplying cannabis to the two teenage girls and a teenage boy.

They also face four joint charges of sexual violating the 14-year-old girl in 1991, in a Wellington hotel.

Duffin faces an additional charge of sexual violation for a later incident at his Mt Victoria brothel, when he touched and simulated sex with the girl before leaving her to observe a prostitute having sex with a client.

The Crown told the jury the complainant, a third-form student when the incidents allegedly happened, went with a friend - a relative of Duffin - to an inner-city hotel rented by the couple.

There, they were given cannabis and Valium and both Duffin and Hills sexually violated and raped her, Ms Murdoch said.

Duffin and Hills have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Duffin's lawyer, Greg King, said his client agreed with many of the charges, but disputed when the complainant, now 31, said the alleged incidents happened.

He maintained the sex was consensual.

"Mr Duffin's defence is that everything that occurred with respect to the sexual offending took place a year later," he said.

The complainant, who now lived in Australia, told the court the couple gave her, her friend and her friend's brother numerous cannabis joints and asked them about their previous sexual experiences.

The girls were invited to visit the defendants again, which they looked forward to, she said.

"It was really exciting - we were going into the city, to stay in a motel, smoke some more pot and probably get some more money. We felt like we were going to get spoilt."

After a dinner of McDonald's, the girls and the couple smoked more cannabis, were given Valium, and told to smoke yet more cannabis.

The complainant woke as she was being carried from her bed. After being forced to give oral sex to Hills, she was put on the table and raped by Duffin, while Hills watched, she said.

The case, set down for five days, continues tomorrow.

Duffin's daughter, Karla Cardno, was kidnapped, raped, tortured, then beaten and buried alive by Paul Joseph Dally in 1989. She was 13.

Dally was jailed for life.

He was denied parole last year, with the Parole Board ruling that he was a medium-to high-risk of reoffending.

Add a Comment