The Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial for a man who was acquitted by a judge of doing indecent acts on three boys.
The man, whose name is suppressed, was accused of encouraging and allowing the boys aged 11 and 12, his son and two friends, to masturbate at his home while he watched.
Judge Edwin Paul discharged the man on all three counts in January this year after finding "with much reluctance" that the alleged facts did not correspond to his interpretation of the section of the Crimes Act.
But the Court of Appeal, in a judgment released on Friday, says he was wrong to do so.
It says the judge's interpretation of the phrasing of the section of the act was incorrect and the acts of the man did constitute an offence under the law.
It set aside the discharge and ordered a new trial.
NZN