Crown seeks preventive detention reports for David Tranter
The Crown is again asking for preventive detention to be considered for David Stanley John Tranter after his conviction on five child sexual abuse charges.
A jury convicted the 64-year-old in the High Court at Christchurch last night after a retirement of five and a quarter hours on the sixth day of the trial before Justice David Gendall.
It was Tranter’s second trial on similar – but not identical – charges after a retrial was ordered on appeal. The successful appeal meant his preventive detention sentence was also ruled out.
The jury yesterday found Tranter not guilty on one rape charge and one of doing an indecent act on a girl under 12. Both not guilty verdicts were by a majority of 11-1. The guilty verdicts were all unanimous.
Tranter (pictured) has previous convictions for child sex abuse offending and was jailed in May 2012 for failing to comply with a seven-year extended supervision order imposed when he was released from a previous jail term.
He had fled New Zealand for the Philippines in 2007 but was brought back to the country and jailed on six charges including using a false passport and breaching prison release conditions.
Justice Gendall has remanded him in custody for sentencing on February 5 and ordered the two health assessors’ reports on his risk of future offending which are necessary before an open-ended preventive detention sentence can be considered.
New or updated reports will be prepared for the sentencing. The Crown has agreed with defence counsel Lee Lee Heah’s request to change one of the assessors because Tranter had an “issue” with one of the previous ones.
The jury retired before lunch to consider its seven verdicts on child sexual abuse charges dating back between 25 and 40 years.
Justice Gendall took almost two hours to sum up the case for the jury. Closing addresses had been heard on Monday afternoon.
Tranter denied the charges involving a man and two women who all gave evidence of abuse as children in various parts of New Zealand as Tranter moved around the country doing various jobs and sometimes living in a housebus.
The charges alleged three allegations of rape of the girls, doing an indecent act on a girl aged under 12, sodomy on a boy aged under 16, inducing a boy to do an indecent act, and indecent assault. One charge of unlawful sexual connection with a girl was dismissed during the trial.
Crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore said in her closing address that none of the children had told anyone about the offending while they were growing up. She said Tranter’s threats to them had worked while they were children and young adults.
Miss Heah told the jury that child sex abuse allegations aroused strong feeling because they involved crimes against the most vulnerable members of the community. But she said the fact that the complainants’ allegations involved offending so long ago raised questions about their honesty, reliability, and the accuracy of their memories. The jury must be objective about the evidence they had heard.
The defence case was that the evidence was not credible or reliable enough for the jury to be sure about finding Tranter guilty. There were concerns about memories and fairness, because Tranter could not check and challenge the charges by bringing witnesses or calling evidence from so long ago.
The jury was told during the trial that in 2003 Tranter had been convicted of indecent assaults on girls aged under 12 and under 16.
The jury was not told that Tranter served a four-year sentence for a sexual assault on a 16-year-old girl on a Christchurch street in 2003.
Category: Focus
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