Frank Russell Walmsley ‘‘had an abnormal sexual interest in young teenage people'', Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae said in his closing remarks at the High Court in Timaru yesterday.
Mr McRae told the 12-member jury the similarities of the allegations against Walmsley (57) should be considered in their decision.
Walmsley gave gifts to young girls; he progressed towards more serious offending; he made girls ‘‘dress up'' and took an interest in uniforms; and he approached girls while they were in the shower, Mr McRae said.
He reviewed the evidence of 10 witnesses, including eight complainants, all presenting the same picture of the alleged sex offender.
‘‘Given the defence case that none of this happened, the issue for you is going to be credibility,'' Mr McRae said.
‘‘In this case, you have eight separate complainants all alleging the same or very similar types of things.''
But the ‘‘graphic'', ‘‘unusual'' and ‘‘compelling'' evidence of the individual complainants showed they were ‘‘recounting a memory'' about a true event, Mr McRae said.
‘‘The Crown is saying they are not singing off the same sheet; they are telling it like it was.''
Walmsley, a former Oamaru Child, Youth and Family caregiver and ‘‘life coach'', is facing 83 charges, mostly sexual, many representative. He is alleged to have raped five girls in Oamaru.
Walmsley has denied the charges.
The charges stem from alleged historic incidents involving four teenagers when Walmsley was the caregiver at the Oamaru Child, Youth and Family home between 1995 and 2000, and from four other young complainants when he acted as their ‘‘life-coach'', between 2005 and 2012.
Walmsley was investigated in 2000, leading to the cancellation of his and his wife's contract with Child, Youth and Family.
He was ‘‘lucky to escape charges'', but the alleged offending began again five years later.
‘‘Why would [Walmsley] continue to put himself in situations where he was alone with young, vulnerable teenage girls like [the complainants]?'' Mr McRae asked the jury.
Mr McRae asked why he would continue a relationship with the complainants for whom he was a ‘‘life-coach'' after he moved to Christchurch in 2011.
‘‘Why would he do that when he had had that investigation previously in 2000?
‘‘The reason why he would do these things is what the complainants said happened actually happened ... whenever he pleased, and whenever he chose ... He held a position of power; who would these [complainants] complain to?
‘‘No wonder things didn't come to light until 2012, 2013.''
Mr McRae told the jury to consider the credibility of the Crown witnesses.
He pointed to the allegations of indecency with a girl aged between 12 and 16. The complainant said she was reading, turned the light out, and remembered waking up with Walmsley's hand going underneath her pyjama bottoms.
‘‘She hasn't thrown the defendant under the bus and said he had tried to rape her. All she is saying is a hand under her pyjama bottoms moving down to her pubic bone.
‘‘If she was going to stitch up the defendant, then you might allege a more serious allegation than she has.''
He reminded the jury of the first witness, who alleged she was raped under the bushes in Milner Park outside the Child, Youth and Family home. She had said she poured the remainder of a bottle of vodka over herself because she smelled ‘‘yucky'', she smelled of sex.
‘‘Graphic, candid evidence, that the Crown says she could only give if this in fact happened to her,'' Mr McRae said.
Defence counsel Craig Ruane will make his closing address today.