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'Year of Hell' after false rape claim

Submitted by anthony on Sat, 2010-03-20 18:01.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Mangakino man falsely accused of raping a 14-year-old girl says the stigma is something he'll never be able to shake.

Leonard Joseph, 42, is a shattered man. The pain and distress the ordeal have caused him and his family are evident on his face as he relives his "year of hell".

Mr Joseph was last week acquitted at the High Court in Rotorua on all charges relating to the alleged rape of the 14-year-old Mangakino girl in March, 2009. The charges he faced included abduction, forcibly taking a minor and rape.

The jury took just seven minutes to come back with a not guilty verdict following a five-day trial.

His mother, Shirley Joseph, broke down in tears as she described that day.

"I stood by my son 100 per cent all the way through this," she said from her Tokoroa home.

"We have gone to hell and back. I knew he wasn't guilty."'