Yesterday afternoon a jury found the man, who still has interim name suppression, not guilty of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, doing an indecent act on a young person and indecent assault.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times after the verdicts, the defendant said he and his family were "relieved".
While waiting more than a year to go to trial he was feeling "stressed" and "sorry that the complaints had ever been made against me, because it’s just against everything that I would stand for", he said.
"There’s nobody more relieved than me, put it that way."
After the verdicts yesterday, the defendant was discharged and hugged his supporters at the back of the courtroom.
The Crown case was that the defendant had gained the trust of the teenage boy through his role working with youth, and sexually offended against him between 2014 and 2019.
Prosecutor Andrew McRae said the man had groomed the complainant and abused his position of trust.
"The Crown say that [the defendant] was like a grandfather to the complainant, he was obviously a mentor to him, he encouraged him to be his best and he gained the trust of his parents as well," Mr McRae said.
"Things took a sinister turn."
He said the complainant had been an honest and believable witness.
But the jury rejected that narrative, instead believing the defence that the complainant was "a bit of a story-teller".
The defendant had "emphatically" denied the allegations and after he was arrested in 2024, told police he would "never ever, ever" sexually abuse the boy.
"That would be putting aside everything I’ve stood for all my life. It just didn’t happen," the defendant told Detective Mark Durant.
In closing to the jury, counsel Philip Hall KC said his client’s police interview had "the ring of honesty" to it.
"You could almost feel the outrage and disgust in the way he responded to the allegations ... he appeared to be absolutely genuine," Mr Hall said.
When Det Durant asked the defendant about the allegation he sexually violated the teenager, he replied "not true, absolutely not true".
"In his dreams," the defendant said.
"He’s a likeable enough young man, [but] he exaggerates. He had bits of illusion. He can be a bit of a story-teller," he said.
The defendant said he was "appalled" by the allegations.
"I don’t know why he’s doing this."
The defendant did admit accidentally indecently touching the teenager on one occasion, but said the complainant responded by saying: "I consent, I consent."
The Crown relied on an intercepted phone call between the defendant and complainant, during which he apologised for events.
But Mr Hall said the call could be explained — the defendant was apologising for the accidental touch.
"[The complainant’s] evidence is seriously inaccurate, it’s not consistent and it’s implausible."
A hearing for final name suppression was scheduled for October.
