Guilty pleas end child sex abuse trial
Nineteen guilty pleas brought an early end to a child sex abuse trial which a Christchurch District Court judge described as: “As difficult as it gets.”
Shayne Baylis, 48, has been remanded in custody for sentencing on November 6 by Judge Paul Kellar.
The Christchurch man’s guilty pleas were put in on the sixth day of the trial, which had originally been set to run for three weeks.
He had previously admitted seven other similar charges during the course of the trial, and the Crown agreed to withdraw six charges.
The charges related to three boys and a girl aged between 12 and 16, and one other unknown girl, and all took place at Christchurch between 1991 and 2009.
Baylis also admitted a representative charge of making a series of intimate visual recordings involving seven young people and Baylis himself.
Several of the victims had given evidence by the time Baylis and his defence team of Jeff McCall and Craig Fletcher considered the situation over the weekend.
After further negotiations and discussions without the jury present today, Baylis agreed to plead guilty to most of the remaining charges and the amended indictment was read to him before the jury.
Judge Kellar said the guilty pleas showed some recognition by Baylis “of the strength of the evidence that’s been given”.
“What is probably even more important, they show the beginnings of some genuine remorse on his part. That is important from the victims’ perspective,” said the judge. “In my experience, it is important that the perpetrator acknowledges their behaviour. That’s important for the victims’ recovery.”
He thanked the jury and the lawyers, who he said had approached the trial “objectively and with great professionalism”. The Crown had been represented by Deidre Orchard and Arpana Raj.
Judge Kellar told the jury: “This is about as difficult a trial as it gets in terms of the subject matter. Let’s make no bones about it – it’s very unpleasant. None of us want to her about these sorts of things.”
Because of the nature of the trial he allowed the jury members to be excused from further service for three years if they wished.
He made an order suppressing the names of any witnesses or people named in the trial, apart from Baylis.
He remanded Baylis in custody for sentencing on November 6. “I’ll just ask for a pre-sentence report at this stage and we will see what that throws up.”
Judge Kellar invited jury members to attend the Court House for the sentencing, but added: “If you want to put it out of your minds, I’ll understand that.”
Category: Focus
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