A Pentecostal pastor's conviction for indecently assaulting a teenager has been overturned.
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The reasons a magistrate convicted Inspire Church founder John McMartin, 68, of indecent assault over an incident at his southwest Sydney home in January 2013 did not satisfy a judge on appeal.
The magistrate's adverse findings on the credibility of Mr McMartin's evidence were "far from convincing and do not withstand scrutiny," NSW District Court Judge Andrew Scotting ruled on Thursday.
Mr McMartin was denied procedural fairness when his lawyers were not given a chance to respond to the magistrate's observations he cut his counsel off while giving evidence and that he displayed "a level of arrogance" during the hearing, contributing to the magistrate finding his evidence "quite underwhelming".
"Witnesses speak over lawyers in the course of their evidence on a daily basis and sometimes even over the judge," Judge Scotting said.
Mr McMartin asking the complainant "how are you really going?" before the alleged incident was "creepy", or perhaps not, the magistrate found, a finding not definitive enough to be rationally used against him.
It was also not open for the magistrate to find Mr McMartin tried to minimise his conduct, based on one equivocal answer he immediately corrected.
"He categorically accepted that his conduct was inappropriate," Judge Scotting said, finding reasonable doubt about Mr McMartin's guilt following his own assessment of the evidence.
Mr McMartin did not have to give evidence but did, and his consistent denial of the offending conduct, while acknowledging his actions were inappropriate, was plausible with no objective evidence contradicting it, the judge said.
The magistrate did not take Mr McMartin's established good character into account when assessing his evidence.
Even the complainant and her mother attested to his good character, the judge said.
Mr McMartin was forensically disadvantaged by the passage of time, with his criminal proceedings coming almost a decade after the alleged incident, meaning contemporaneous records of phone calls and text messages had been lost, and the circumstances of a complaint made shortly afterward, later withdrawn, was unable to be tested.
The judge noted the issue was later revived at a time when the complainant's mother was unhappy with Mr McMartin about another issue.
The complainant's evidence also contained "critical inconsistencies", the judge said.
Judge Scotting set aside Mr McMartin's conviction and the penalty imposed.
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National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Australian Associated Press
