Vanuatu seasonal worker guilty on sex charges in NZ

A seasonal worker from Vanuatu has been remanded in custody for sentence after being found guilty on charges relating to a sex attack on a woman taken from the streets of Hastings.

Appearing at a trial which started before Judge Geoff Rea in the Napier District Court on Monday and ended yesterday, Mathieu Batick, 25, denied one charge of indecent assault and one of assault with intent to commit sexual violation.

Guilty verdicts on both charges were returned by the jury of seven women and five men Thursday

The judge earlier in the day discharged 31-year-old Luciano Muluane, another worker from Vanuatu, who had denied being a party to the assault.

The jury was told Batick approached the woman, put his arm around her, put his hand over her breast, and pulled her off the street into an alley, as she tried to work out how to get home after leaving a closed bar in Hastings early on the morning of February 9 last year.

A police officer told the court that after seeing a group of apparent seasonal workers on the street he became suspicious about where they had gone, did a u-turn in his patrol car and turned into the alley, where he saw Batick with his pants down standing over the woman who was on the ground yelling she wanted to be left alone.  Batik will be sentenced on October 6.
Source:
PACNEWS