Auckland, NEW ZEALAND —  Alosio Taimo, the Auckland rugby coach on trial for sexually abusing boys, has been found guilty of most of the 106 charges laid against him.

The 55-year-old has been on trial in the High Court at Auckland for nine weeks.

This morning, after 17 hours of deliberations the jury returned with their verdicts.

Taimo was found guilty of 95 of the charges against him and not guilty of 11 charges, including charges relating to one complainant.

He was originally charged with offending against one boy in August 2016.

The boy's aunt had overheard him telling his cousins that Taimo was gay and that he knew this because Taimo had touched him.

She went to police who investigated and identified more complainants.

The number of complainants grew again after Taimo's name suppression was lifted and his identity published in the media.

The 106 charges laid by the Crown spanned nearly 30 years, with the youngest complainant just nine-years-old at the time of the offending.

Justice Moore told the jurors it had been a long and harrowing trial that had taken two and a half months of their lives.

He said it had been a fraught and emotionally draining exercise and the community owed them a debt of gratitude for their service.

The Crown's Case

Crown prosecutor Jasper Rhodes had argued Taimo sexually abused boys at his job, where he worked as a manager, at a school where he later worked as a teacher’s aide and in his own home and car, amongst others.

As well as hearing evidence given by complainants, the jury were shown a photograph of a boy sitting topless on Taimo's bed, stored in his cellphone called 'family and forever'.

The jury were also told about, but not shown, an explicit close-up photo of a young teenager performing a sex act on a man — also found on Mr. Taimo's cellphone.

The face of the male can't be seen but the Crown told the jury they could infer it was Taimo — based on the fact the photo was on his phone, and that fabric seen in it was similar to distinctive bedding seen in police photographs of his home.

In cross-examining Taimo, Mr Rhodes put to him that he must be the unluckiest man in the world,  if he was to be believed.

The Defense's Case

Taimo's defense was plainly put by Justice Moore in his summing up of the case.

"His defense is simple. It is a total denial. He says that each of the complainants has lied about what happened to them. His defense is that there is no room for mistake. This is not a question of the complainants being mistaken.

"The issue here is whether each of the complainants told the truth in respect of the essential elements which make up each of the charges."

Taimo took the stand to defend the allegations in week six.

He was walked through his evidence by his lawyer Tua Saseve and his responses to the allegations of abuse were similar.

Taimo will be sentenced on 14 December.