The Young Labour Camp sexual assault trial contains all the usual defences for the alleged actions of the accused. He was very drunk and cannot recall his actions, is one defence ie the booze made me do it.
The next defence is the tried and true one of victim-blaming.
A person who was allegedly sexually assaulted at a Young Labour Party summer camp was exaggerating his story to get involved with the “drama that was unfolding”, a defence lawyer has claimed.
[…] During cross-examination, defence lawyer John Munro accused the victim of making parts of his story up and exaggerating what happened.
“What you’ve done is exaggerate this to get in on the drama that was unfolding that night and the morning,” Munro said.
Munro also showed the victim a photo of him with the defendant time-stamped after the alleged indecent assault.
stuff.co.nz/national/crime/115443707/labour-party-summer-camp-accused-very-drunk-on-night-of-alleged-sexual-assaults
She said the first charge, an accusation of squeezing a man’s genitals, was the result of the complainant wanting to be “part of the drama” created by other accusations.
The allegations relating to the second complainant, Priest said, simply didn’t happen.
She said her client “did something completely different which was meant as a joke”.
NZ Herald
One unusual defence is that the accused is a victim of a “political storm” with the inference that, had it happened at a non-political camp, it would have been no big deal that he allegedly sexually assaulted four teenagers.
defence lawyer Emma Priest says her client’s actions “were not criminal at all”, and much of what is alleged “either didn’t happen or has been exaggerated”.
“[Is he a] sexual offender, or young man at a party caught up in a political storm?” she asked.
tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/man-accused-indecent-assault-labour-party-summer-camp-caught-in-political-storm-lawyer
Radio NZ, to their credit in their coverage of the trial, called the alleged victims teenagers unlike other media who referred to them as men and women.
“On separate occasions during the night, [the defendant] firstly put his hands down the front of the pants of two young men, grabbing their genitals. To the second young man he did it twice.”
One of the complainants […] said the defendant was clearly drunk that night.
He said the accused was very touchy and shoved his hands down his pants and squeezed his genitals, before being shoved away.
He said the alleged offending had “screwed up his life for a bit” and it wasn’t something he wanted to remember.
Mr Johnstone told the jury the accused then went on to assault a young woman.
“A few moments later he kissed and licked his way up the neck of a young woman to her face. He needed to be shoved off.”
[…] people tried to put the defendant to bed multiple times.
“During one of those occasions, he announced to the young women who were trying to help settle him down that he couldn’t wait to take both of them back to his car, and using the words of one of those women, he groped her; using both hands to touch her breasts and bottom outside her clothing.”
rnz.co.nz/news/national/397968/labour-party-youth-camp-accused-denies-indecent-assault-charges
In contrast to other media news stories about the trial, Stuff reported that one of the alleged victims was 18 when he was allegedly assaulted, not 16 like the other stories; and Newshub’s article reports that the accused is 20, not 21 as reported by other media.
