The conviction of a Pentecostal minister who molested a teenager has been reversed.
Judge on appeal was unconvinced by the grounds on which a magistrate found Inspire Church founder John McMartin, 68, guilty of indecent assault following an incident at his southwest Sydney home in January 2013.
Judge Andrew Scotting of the NSW District Court concluded on Thursday that the magistrate’s unfavorable conclusions regarding the reliability of Mr. McMartin’s evidence were “far from convincing and do not withstand scrutiny.”
When Mr. McMartin’s lawyers were not given the opportunity to respond to the magistrate’s observations that he cut off his counsel while giving evidence and that he displayed “a level of arrogance” throughout the hearing, which contributed to the magistrate finding his evidence “quite underwhelming,” procedural fairness was violated.
“Witnesses speak over lawyers in the course of their evidence on a daily basis, and sometimes even over the judge,” stated Judge Scotting.
The complainant was questioned by Mr. McMartin, “How are you really doing?” The magistrate concluded that the reported encounter was either “creepy” or it wasn’t, but this conclusion was inconclusive and couldn’t be reasonably used against him.
Additionally, based on one ambiguous response he immediately corrected, the magistrate was not entitled to conclude that Mr. McMartin intended to downplay the severity of his actions.
Following his own evaluation of the material, Judge Scotting found reasonable doubt about Mr. McMartin’s culpability and stated, “He categorically accepted that his conduct was inappropriate.”
Mr. McMartin was not required to give testimony, but he did, and the judge found that his persistent denial of the unlawful behavior—while conceding the inappropriateness of his actions—was believable in the absence of any independent evidence to the contrary.
The magistrate did not consider Mr. McMartin’s demonstrated moral integrity when evaluating his testimony.
The judge stated that even the complainant and her mother attested to his honorable reputation.
Since Mr. McMartin’s criminal proceedings occurred almost ten years after the alleged incident, contemporaneous records of phone calls and text messages were lost, and the specifics of a complaint that was made soon after the alleged incident but later withdrawn could not be verified, he was at a forensic disadvantage.
The judge noted that the matter eventually came up again at a time when the complainant’s mother was dissatisfied with Mr. McMartin on a different matter.
The judge also found “critical inconsistencies” in the complainant’s testimony.
The conviction and punishment imposed on Mr. McMartin were overturned by Judge Scotting.
