A former colleague of a St John ambulance officer on trial on a raft of sex charges dating back to 1999 has told a jury the accused man was dedicated to his job.
The former ambulance officer, whose name and current occupation is suppressed, is on trial in Auckland District Court facing 10 charges of indecent assault and one of sexual violation.
The incidents allegedly occurred on five occasions in Auckland in 1999 and 2000.
The charges include an allegation that he indecently assaulted a schoolgirl in the back of an ambulance while she was suffering minor injuries after a car crash.
Jurors today heard from the husband and a close friend of one of the other complainants, and the ambulance officer who was working with the accused on the job which led to that complaint.
The former officer said he was driving the ambulance while the accused man was taking the woman, who had been drinking and had been in a distressed state before ambulance arrived, from her home in suburban St Johns to Auckland Hospital.
He was not asked about any alleged incidents facing his colleague, but was asked in detail by prosecutor Phil Hamlin about the job sheet filled in by the accused.
The former officer said that head-to-toe examinations of patients suffering from intoxication rather than physical trauma were unusual and that as a general rule he would not undertake such an examination, which includes a chest examination, of such a patient.
"But it really depends on the circumstances," the former officer said.
He said he had never had any problems with the accused man on any of the jobs they attended other than one occasion when his map reading let him down.
"I didn't know him as anything other than a bright eyed, bushy-tailed guy who wanted to do a good job as an ambulance officer," the officer said.
"I can't think of anything bad to say about him other than that he's shocking at map reading, and that was just one job."
Earlier, the husband of the complainant from suburban St Johns said his wife had complained to him shortly after arriving at Auckland Hospital about the actions of one of the ambulance officers in the vehicle on the way.
Under cross-examination from the accused's lawyer Matthew Phelps, the husband agreed he had said he didn't think anything of the complaint at first and thought it might be a reaction to her having had too much alcohol.
But he said when being re-examined by Mr Hamlin that he had changed his mind shortly afterwards as his wife continued to voice her concerns to him.
The trial is scheduled to continue for another two weeks.
