The Stuff
November 26, 2010
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4391141/Ex-brother-horrified-by-sex-allegations
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| ACCUSED: Bede Hampton in the dock at the High Court in Wellington, |
A former Marist brother charged with sexually assaulting two pupils more than 30 years ago says he did not do most of what is alleged against him.
Bede Thomas Hampton, 62, told a jury in the High Court at Wellington yesterday that for years he had carried the burden of what he had done wrong – but some of the claims made were impossible and ridiculous.
As a 12-year-old he had been touched indecently, he said. "I was terrified of what happened to me and there I was doing the same thing." He said he had no idea why it happened.
Hampton, who is now married with children and living in Australia, pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent assault involving one boy and acknowledges an incident happened with another but said he did not know if it was a crime.
He has pleaded not guilty to 24 other charges, including two of sodomy, arising from his time at St Joseph's College in Masterton in the 1970s. He said he did not even understand sex at that time and first had intercourse after he left the Marist brothers when he was 29.
He said he was horrified to hear he was accused of sodomy. "I said sorry for what I did if I hurt [a complainant], but I never did anything like that."
Two former pupils called to give evidence for the defence said they knew nothing about events alleged by the complainants.
The trial resumes on Monday.
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