A Napier retirement village has been told it cannot evict a resident convicted of child sex offences.
In Napier District Court yesterday, Alwin Kenneth Woodbury, 71, was sentenced to 12 months' home detention and 200 hours' community work after earlier being found guilty of four charges relating toindecent acts with three children under 12.
Two of the children were sisters, the third was their nephew. The offending happened between 1990 and 2006.
Woodbury holds a lifetime contract at the Riversdale Lifestyle Village in Taradale.
Anglican Care, which owns the retirement village, wanted to remove Woodbury, but cannot legally evict him.
Anglican Care chief executive officer Derek Morrison said the organisation's contracts did not allow Woodbury's removal from the village.
"If he'd had a conviction before he'd applied, then obviously we wouldn't have considered him suitable," Mr Morrison told The Dominion Post.
Judge Tony Adeane said Woodbury displayed a gross breach of trust and his actions had been ruinous for one of the victims.
Woodbury and his wife had lived in the retirement village for some time.
Judge Adeane said there was no reason to think he was likely to offend there in the future, and no suggestion he had in the past.
