Extradition battle for UK-based Kiwi teacher Kevan Dooley accused of sexually assaulting students

A British judge has ruled evidence Kiwi teacher Kevan Dooley drugged male students before assaulting them is strong enough for him to be extradited back to New Zealand, the Mail wrote. Photo / Getty Images

• Kevan Dooley is alleged to have sexually assaulted six Kiwi students before moving to the UK in 1997.
• Allegations date back to 1988, with police contacted in 2008 after the death by suicide of a man who’d previously told his mother Dooley, his former teacher and basketball coach at Rangatahi College in Murupara, had sexually assaulted him.
• Dooley, 69, is fighting extradition, saying it breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

A Kiwi teacher accused of sexually assaulting six students before moving to the United Kingdom is fighting attempts to extradite him to New Zealand.

Kevan Dooley is facing four charges of indecent assault on a man over 16 and five charges of other sexual violation before the Rotorua District Court.

The claims against Dooley - which he denies - emerged after one of the 69-year-old’s alleged victims killed himself in 2008, the Daily Mail reported.

The man had earlier told his mother he’d been sexually assaulted by Dooley, his former teacher and basketball coach at Rangatahi College in Murupara, and she went to police.

The school closed in 2013 and was replaced by an area school.

Subsequently, two other students came forward to detectives with accusations about Dooley, the Mail reported.

The accusations relate to incidents between 1988 and 1997 - when Dooley left New Zealand - allegedly at Dooley’s home or in a motel, often after victims went to sleep or had been encouraged to drink or smoke cannabis.

Police began investigating in 2008, the Westminster magistrates court heard in September.

But as the Kiwi had already been in the UK for more than a decade, they didn’t think the offences merited extradition proceedings, the Mail reported, citing court papers.

Here, the case was reopened in 2016 after the mother of the Murupara man who took his own life mistakenly thought Dooley was back in New Zealand.

She then gave police details of more alleged victims.

One said he was sexually assaulted aged 14 after falling asleep during “parties” at Dooley’s home between 1991 and 1993. Another was woken to be sexually assaulted, aged 15, the Mail reported.

He just “really liked cuddles”, Dooley allegedly told one victim.

Charges were eventually laid against Dooley, an arrest warrant was issued, an extradition request sent to the National Crime Agency in Britain two years ago and the Kiwi captured in London in May last year.

Dooley denies wrongdoing, but a British judge has ruled the evidence he fed male students drink and drugs before assaulting them is strong enough for him to be extradited, the Mail wrote.

When approached by the Mail at his flat - metres from a primary school - Dooley said only that he was “fighting the extradition”.

The pensioner has claimed being forced to face justice in New Zealand would infringe his rights to “privacy and a family life” under the European Convention on Human Rights, the Mail reported.

However, he was said to have no family, few friends and “not much of a home” in the UK, they wrote.

Dooley’s claim is being considered by UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Despite allegations being made in New Zealand about Dooley, he was able to teach maths to young male school students in South London before being made redundant in 2015, the Mail reported.

And in 2021 he was arrested by Metropolitan Police after a homeless young Iranian refugee he took in claimed Dooley sexually assaulted him, they wrote.

No charges were laid.

New Zealand Police told the Herald they received reports of the alleged offending in 2008, however Dooley had already left the country.

“Since then a number of enquiries have been conducted including speaking with witnesses, victims, and identifying the location of the alleged offender,” a spokesperson said.

“Police have been liaising with authorities in the United Kingdom in relation to the matter and the alleged offender has been remanded on bail in London.”

The spokesperson called it a “complex investigation” and blamed several factors for the delay in prosecution, including the historic nature of the report and Dooley being overseas.

“Historic offending can often add layers of complexity to investigations, such as working to locate potential further victims, witnesses and suspects who may have moved around the country or overseas, and the potential reduced availability of evidence.

“We know it can be incredibly hard and at times distressing to report or talk about incidents of this nature especially in incidents involving people of authority or those meant to take care of you such as teachers and caregivers.”

Dooley is due to reappear for an extradition hearing in the Westminster Magistrates Court in February 2025.

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