A 61-year-old Oamaru man will stand trial in the Timaru District Court on four charges of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 12 years, offences which were alleged to have occurred in the mid to late 1970s.
After a depositions hearing in the Oamaru District Court yesterday before justices of the peace Anne Hore and Bill Saxton, the defendant denied four separate charges of indecently assaulting the girl between November 5, 1975, and November 5, 1979, twice in Christchurch and once each in Papanui and Kaiapoi.
At that time, the girl would have been aged between 7 and 11 years.
After the JPs had considered evidence handed to them and heard from the girl's mother, the defendant's legal counsel, Sarah Saunderson-Warner, accepted a prima facie case had been established.
The man was remanded on bail to appear in the Timaru District Court on November 21.
Police prosecutor Tim Hambleton said all four charges were historical matters and allegations varied from kissing the girl to sexually assaulting her.
The girl's mother gave evidence that the defendant was a next-door neighbour. Her daughter visited the man and his family on occasions to play with their child, and also met him when she was with her mother on social occasions and had helped out at his business.
The mother said there was nothing to give her any impression there was anything sexual between her daughter and the defendant and her daughter did not mention anything at the time. Later, when her daughter shifted to Australia, she wrote her mother a letter which contained allegations about the defendant, but did not go into detail.
