Raymond George Melrose, 69, pleaded guilty in the Whangarei District Court today. Photo / Northern Advocate / File
Raymond George Melrose, 69, pleaded guilty in the Whangarei District Court today. Photo / Northern Advocate / File
A former principal of Kaikohe Christian College has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys more than 40 years ago.
Raymond George Melrose, 69, pleaded guilty in the Whangarei District Court today to one charge of indecently assaulting a boy between the ages of 12 and 16, one of indecentlyassaulting a boy aged 9, one of doing an indecent act on a boy between 12 and 16, and one of inducing a boy between 12-16 to perform an indecent act.
The charges relate to two boys, aged 9 and 11 when the abuse started, and Melrose committed the abuse between August 1968 and February 1975 when he was 23 years' old and teaching outside Northland.
Two are representative charges which means the offences occurred on more than one occasion, and his victims cannot be certain of the dates and times Melrose offended against them.
Melrose, former principal of Kaikohe Christian School, was initially facing 13 charges, including four of sodomy with a male aged 12-16, three of indecent assault on a male aged 12-16, and one indecent assault on a boy under 12, but the majority were dropped and he pleaded guilty to an updated charge list.
