The trial of the 75-year-old for historical allegations of sexual abuse has entered its second week, and on Monday jurors were presented with closing arguments from both sides.
The High Court in Auckland's heard evidence from six complainants during the trial, although charges relating to one of the six have been dismissed.
An Auckland jury will now deliberate on the Leonard Cave case. (Source: 1News)
Crown Prosecutor Jacob Barry told the jury they'd effectively heard six mini-trials over the last week, but there were striking similarities.
In closing he said, "six trials boil down to one; one trial, four decades, and six men with a tragic shared experience."
Defence Lawyer Warren Pyke argued the testimonies could not be relied upon.
"If you add up six flawed stories you don’t get to one good story."
He said the evidence was "muddied" by years that have passed since the alleged offending and the alcohol consumed at the time.
"This sort of evidence is not good enough to prove criminal charges to the standard of beyond reasonable doubt."
Barry argued you don't need perfect memories in order to accept what the complainants claim to have happened.
He described to the jury how following Cave's first alleged offence, more than 50 years ago, there was an "escalation of his offending."
He said it started in an "opportunistic fashion but moved to far more calculated offending."
The students he preyed upon, Barry said, were vulnerable.
"Please just consider the young men involved, and the position that they were in, many from broken homes, isolated from families.
"Mr Cave was a teacher, choir master and friend for many of them", he said.
But Pyke argued, "they can't get their stories correct about the key events, you cannot come in with verdicts of guilty."
The judge will sum up on Tuesday, before the jury's released to deliberate on 12 charges.
They include indecent assault, sexual violation and supply of both Class A and Class C drugs.
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