A veteran teacher was acquitted of sexually abusing a trio of students after one admitted that parts of the accusations were lies — intended to get him fired, a witness said in court.
The Auckland, New Zealand, teacher had been on trial for seven charges of indecent assault for inappropriately touching three 11-year-old girls in his class, Stuff NZ reported.
A prosecutor said the unidentified educator “stroked the students’ hair in an indecent manner, swiped his hand over the chest area of two of the victims and grabbed the breasts of another victim,” according to the news outlet.
But during cross-examination in court, one of the students admitted she lied about what she told cops.
She stated that the teacher had touched her, but revealed that she lied about seeing the teacher assault any other student, the report said.
“My friend told me that she got touched and I pretended to believe her,” she said.
A boy who claimed he witnessed the alleged groping said students hatched a plan to get the teacher fired.
“I joined in because my friends were there and I wanted to support them and because I didn’t really want to put up with any of that other stuff,” he said in court, according to Stuff.co.nz.
The teacher admitted that last March he lost his cool in class and swore at the students.
Two girls still claimed that they were indecently assaulted, and the Crown found there was evidence of collusion between the students.
The judge overseeing the case ruled there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to jury after the teacher’s lawyer moved to have it dismissed.
The jury deliberated for less than an hour before finding the teacher not guilty on all charges.
The educator, whose identity was not released, said what he went through has been a “terrible ordeal.”
“After 40 years as a teacher, and 27 years at this school, I was dismissed within a few days of the allegations being made — allegations which have now been shown to be false, and deliberately made to get me fired,” the man said, the site reported.
“It was devastating to sit in the dock while listening to one complainant admit she had lied, while another one admitted there was a plan to make up stories to get me fired,” he continued, adding that “their plan worked. I now have to try to put back together the pieces of my life.”
The teacher’s lawyer, Marc Corlett QC, said: “It was obvious from the video interview that were conducted by the police of two of the complainants and two so-called ‘eyewitnesses’ that their stories were hopelessly vague, inconsistent and implausible.”
“They were irreconcilable with each other.”