Baptist pastor cleared of sex abuse

Ninety minutes of deliberation was all it took for a District Court jury today to acquit a former Baptist pastor of 18 sexual assault charges alleged to have been committed against one of his parishioners.

The pastor, whose defence was that he had a consensual extramarital affair with the mother of three, was acquitted of 11 counts of sexual penetration without consent, seven counts of indecent assault, two counts of aggravated burglary and one count of assault occasioning bodily harm.

During the three week trial the jury was told by the prosecution that the former pastor had been able to commit the alleged offences by virtue of his position in the church and the high regard in which she held him.

However the pastor said he had fallen in love with her and the two had become involved in an extramarital affair on New Year's Day 2005. He denied all the allegations saying that the two had often had sex which was consensual.