Jury Delivers Verdicts of Not Guilty in Daramalan College Historical Sex Abuse Trial

By Megan Gorrey and Alexandra Back
Canberra Times
March 24, 2017

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/jury-delivers-verdicts-of-not-guilty-in-daramalan-college-historical-sex-abuse-trial-20170323-gv4oac.html

Alleged abuser Peter Cuzner. Photo: Graham Tidy

Former Daramalan College teacher Peter Cuzner? has been acquitted of sexual abusing a male student in the 1980s.

An ACT Supreme Court jury found Mr Cuzner, 61, not guilty of two charges of indecent assault allegedly committed against the teenage boy following a five-day trial and one day of deliberations.

Mr Cuzner, of Kaleen, did not visibly react as the verdicts were handed down on Friday. His wife and children sobbed and embraced one another in the public gallery.

Speaking outside court, Mr Cuzner expressed relief his legal battle was over and said he wanted to get on with his life and rebuild his reputation.

"Child sexual assault is a terrible thing and it's affected many vulnerable people, but there are a lot of people who do get falsely accused as I was, and today showed that I was innocent."

Mr Cuzner, a former ASIC senior executive, said the allegations had a devastating impact on his health, career, family and finances.

"They've cost me my job and they've cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars just to get this sorted and to get this not guilty verdict.

"What it's done for me is to refocus on the things that I know are really important in my life, and that's my belief in myself, my integrity, the value of family, friends.

When asked if there was anything he wanted to say to the man who brought the charges against him, Mr Cuzner said: "I don't think so."

Mr Cuzner was one of four former ACT teachers charged last year after police launched a sweeping investigation into child sexual abuse in Canberra schools in the 1980s.

ACT Policing set up Operation Attest following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He pleaded not guilty to two indecent acts on the boy in the ACT Magistrates Court last year and his trial began in the higher court last week.

Prosecutors argued Mr Cuzner, who was the teenager's year 9 master at the Dickson college, touched the boy's groin area when he said he was looking for a pulse on two separate occasions.

It was alleged one incident happened when the teacher took the student for a drive, and pulled over into an empty car park at the old Canberry Fair in Watson.

The second incident was alleged to have happened during the school holidays, when the boy went to Mr Cuzner's Macgregor home to help in the garden.

Prosecutors said the complainant, who denied suggestions he had launched a civil claim to get money from the Catholic church, was adamant Mr Cuzner was his abuser.

But defence barrister John Masters, instructed by Marjason and Marjason Solicitors, had argued there were numerous inconsistencies in his evidence and urged the jury to look at the evidence before the court.

Chief Justice Helen Murrell acknowledged the historic case had been emotional and difficult for jurors. She appreciated their task had been "a difficult one".