A man facing 38 sex charges, some of them dating back more than 20 years, is standing trial in New Plymouth this week.
Peter Robert Jordan, 63, pleaded not guilty to all charges, when he appeared in the High Court yesterday.
The Crown says the Waitara youth counsellor preyed on vulnerable and troubled young men sometimes drugging them, the Taranaki Daily News reported.
The charges, many of them representative, include 23 of sexual violation, 14 of indecent assault and attempted sexual violation.
They stem from allegations made by five men that they were sexually abused, attacked and raped by Jordan between 1986 and 2007.
Crown prosecutor Justin Marinovich told the jury that Jordan had preyed on many of his victims, some as young as 14, at the very time they were holding their hands out for help.
Defence counsel Andrew Laurenson discussed the individual charges and told the jury each was either consensual or his client denied it ever happened.
The trial, before Justice Geoffrey Venning, continued today.
