Updated: 6:30am – A jury must now decide whether two police officers accused of faking a teen’s arrest to get him away from his underage girlfriend were kidnapping him or just giving advice.
Senior Auckland policemen Inspector Hurimoana Dennis and Sergeant Vaughan Perr are standing trial charged with kidnapping a then-17-year-old – who cannot be named – in May, 2015.
Prosecutors at the High Court at Auckland say the teenager agreed to move to Australia after being briefly locked in a police station cell by Dennis – with Perry’s help – and threatened with statutory rape charges over his relationship with his 15-year-old girlfriend.
The Crown says Dennis got involved on behalf of the teenager’s parents – family friends – after police officially filed no charges and closed their case over allegations the young man was having sex with the underage girl.
The jury in the trial retired to begin deliberations on Wednesday, after hearing a summary of the cases by Justice Edwin Wylie.
Dennis’ defence say the incident was not about breaking up “Romeo and Juliet,” but rather an officer trying to stop a young man from committing a crime.
He denies threatening the teenager – saying he was just showing him “where things could end up” – and his lawyers say the prosecution rests entirely on the young man’s account of events.
Dennis is also separately charged with sending the teen straight back to Sydney when he tried to return to New Zealand a month later.
The trial is in its third week.
– NZ Newswire/ NewstalkZB
Featured image: Sergeant Vaughan Perry and Inspector Hurimoana Denns. (Photo/NZ Herald)
