After more than 16 hours of deliberation, the jury in the Arthur Allan Thomas case have been unable to reach a verdict.
The judge has declared a hung jury on the historical charges, one of rape and four of indecent assault.
The next hearing date for Thomas has been set down for Thursday, August 19 at 2:15pm. A date for retrial is yet to be set.
The now 83-year-old denies all five charges relating to two women, who first spoke to police in 2019.
The Crown says Thomas sexually assaulted the women when they were girls and that on some occasions, other people were present when the alleged abuse took place.
The trial was heavily suppressed and prevented the publication of many of the specific details including where and when the alleged offending took place.
Arthur Allan Thomas, is one of the most well-known figures in New Zealand criminal history.
In 1971 and 1973, he was found guilty of the murders of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe, who were shot dead in their Pukekawa farmhouse.
Thomas served nine years in prison before being pardoned on December 17, 1979.
He was granted close to $950,000 in compensation after a Royal Commission of Inquiry found a police officer planted a bullet casing in the Crewe's garden.
In the Crown's summing up, lawyer Aaron Perkins QC told the jury, just because someone has been previously wrongfully convicted, does not mean that they cannot be rightfully convicted in a different proceeding.
"The two proceedings in question... are, for want of a better expression, chalk and cheese," Perkins told the court, in relation to the Crewe murders.
He also told the court it is "far-fetched in the extreme" to suggest the complainants and other witnesses are "making it up".
Which is exactly what Thomas' defence lawyer Marie Dhyrberg QC proposed to the jury.
"The motive is so strong it's pulled four people together - two wives and two husbands – to come to this courtroom and seriously mislead you, and you ask the question why... Because they wanted the money and wanted compensation."
She maintains the two complainants are bitter women who lied under oath to get at her clients compensation.
