NEW ZEALAND
Stuff
February 14, 2018
By Catrin Owen
An Olympic athlete admitted to indecently assaulting a girl in a letter to his ex-wife, a court has heard.
New Zealand gold medallist Arthur Parkin is on trial in the Auckland District Court for allegedly indecently assaulting three young girls.
The fourth witness in the trial is Parkin’s ex-wife. Their marriage ended in 2007.
In court on Wednesday, she said Parkin sent her a letter during their divorce proceedings stating that he had exposed himself and asked one of the complainants to touch his penis.
She later burned the letter, she said.
Parkin had told her sometime in the early 1990s he had indecently assaulted the complainant, she said.
Parkin used a “brutal word” she had never heard before, she told the court.
“I went into turmoil and into a state of shock . . . it was devastating.”
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