An Oamaru woman has been acquitted after facing two charges in the Oamaru District Court arising from a dispute over who was the father of her daughter born in 1991.
In a defended hearing on February 5 before Judge Stephen O'Driscoll, Lauren Daphne Sandrey (40), manager, denied forging and using a Department of Internal Affairs document on or about January 20 last year and causing a loss to Jonathan Owen Brooks by deception on January 21 last year.
Yesterday, Judge O'Driscoll, in a written decision, said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the prosecution had proved the two charges, and he dismissed them.
The charges arose after Sandrey filled in and lodged with the Department of Internal Affairs a "request by father to add father's details to birth register" form - having Mr Brooks recorded on her daughter Jessica's birth certificate as the father.
The form had Mr Brooks' signature.
However, Mr Brooks denied being the father and signing the form, and lodged a complaint with police.
The second charge related to the payment of between $15 and $20 a week child support by Mr Brooks, which police alleged had been obtained by Sandrey by deception and without right, based on the request to change her daughter's birth certificate.
That charge was a consequence of having Mr Brooks recorded as the father, with the new birth certificate forwarded by Work and Income NZ to the Inland Revenue, which sought child-support payments.
In his decision, Judge O'Driscoll made it clear it was not his function to determine the father of the child born to Sandrey.
Sandrey contended Mr Brooks was the father, Mr Brooks disputed that.
That issue was not an ingredient of either of the charges Sandrey faced.
The issue was whether or not Mr Brooks had signed the father's form or Sandrey had signed his name.
Judge O'Driscoll emphasised his decision to dismiss the charges should not be interpreted as support for or against Mr Brooks being the father.
Judge O'Driscoll said the evidence presented to him at the hearing on February 5 could not all be correct.
"I could not describe any of the three witnesses [Sandrey, Mr Brooks and Jessica Sandrey] as `perfect'," he said.
However, he found Jessica to be "an honest, convincing and reliable witness" and accepted what she had said about Mr Brooks signing the father's form when she and her mother visited him at Oamaru Harbour.
That evidence was consistent with her mother's.
As a result, the charges were dismissed.
