Parker claims another victim

Ex-principal loses bid to regain job

Convicted paedophile James Parker has claimed another victim. Stephen Hovell, principal at Pamapuria School while Parker taught there (and served as Mr Hovell's deputy), has failed in a bid to get his job back.

He lost his all-but final appeal (he could still go to the Employment Court) when the Employment Relations Authority released a scathing determination that found he had been rightly sacked for failing to ensure the safety of his pupils.

Mr Hovell was dismissed in February after an investigation found he did not take appropriate action when concerns were first raised about Parker, who is awaiting sentencing on a raft of sex abuse charges, laid last year, relating to sleepovers with boys at his Awanui farm. Concerns about his behaviour were first raised, to no avail, more than a decade earlier, however, when he was teaching at Oturu School, just outside Kaitaia.

The ERA found that Mr Hovell had sought to protect his deputy principal, rather than his students, at the time of the initial police complaint in 2009. The complainant subsequently withdrew the allegation, but police in Kaitaia wrote to the school to express concerns about Parker's behaviour.

Detective Dean Gorrie wrote that it had become "abundantly clear" during his investigation that Parker had been inviting students to his house for sleepovers on a regular basis.

"In my view it is clearly inappropriate for a school teacher to invite young children to their residence, outside of school hours, and have them sleeping over, and I would suggest that this practice must stop immediately, and protocols be initiated to discourage them from occurring in the future," he added.

However, the authority found, Mr Hovell had withheld that part of letter from the school's board of trustees. He said he asked Parker to stop having sleepovers, but kept no record of the conversation and failed to formally censure him.

The investigation also found Mr Hovell did nothing to manage the return to school of students who complained about Parker. Nor did he do anything to monitor Parker's activity after he returned to school following a period of leave during the police investigation.

He told the investigation he did not know the sleepovers were continuing, despite evidence from teachers and parents that Parker was "driving around town with boys," and even leaving school with them.

ERA member James Chrichton said it strained credibility to breaking point for Mr Hovell to claim no knowledge that the sleepovers were continuing. He found that the school was right to dismiss Mr Hovell, and that he should not be reinstated. He also stated that it was not right for Mr Hovell to "wash his hands of responsibility" for dealing with the matter.

Mr Hovell did not fully inform the board, did not seek outside advice, and undertook no monitoring of Parker.

"That last mentioned failure, the failure to monitor, ultimately led inexorably to further abuse of these young people, abuse which could so easily have been avoided by Mr Hovell taking some very straightforward steps to ensure his instructions were being followed," he said.

School commissioner Larry Forbes, who was appointed after the board resigned over the charges against Parker, said the ERA decision would allow the school to move forward.

"It's been in a state of limbo to some extent because of the unknowns around the leadership of the school in the future. So having that decision now means that we can proceed with appointing a new principal and get some stability in that area," he said.

A preferred candidate was to be interviewed yesterday, and a decision would be made by the end of the week. The new principal would likely start at the beginning of the third term.

An invitation for Mr Hovell to speak to the Northland Age through his lawyer yesterday was declined.