Former teacher Lewis Payne Wells pleads guilty to child sexual abuse in Auckland

Lewis Payne Wells pleaded guilty today in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / NZME

A former teacher who has served prior prison stints for sexual abuse of children has pleaded guilty to new charges.

Lewis Payne Wells, 79, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent acts with a young person, which generally carries a sentence of up to seven years' imprisonment.

But during today's arraignment in the High Court at Auckland, prosecutors set the groundwork for seeking preventive detention - a sentence reserved for repeat sexual or violent offenders in which a person can be held indefinitely.

He is unlikely to be sentenced until next year so that a preventive detention report can be prepared.

Wells was deregistered as a teacher following his first conviction. None of his prior victims were his students, but court documents released today show he used his teaching background to groom his latest victim.

Around March last year, Wells collected feijoas from a family that had recently moved into his neighbourhood. While there, he offered to tutor a 12-year-old boy in maths for free, mentioning his past teaching experience, court documents state.

"The complainant was reluctant, but agreed," according to the summary of facts.

At the end of the first tutoring session, which took place about a month later, he tickled the boy - prompting the mother to send a text message stating they no longer needed his services. But Wells continued to stop by the home unannounced to speak with the boy, documents state.

During two of the post-tutoring encounters, Wells is alleged to have touched the boy's buttocks as they discussed maths outside the home. The boy felt uncomfortable enough that he told his mother, who witnessed one of the incidents. In a text to the defendant, she told him to stay away from the property.

Wells also pleaded guilty today to failing to comply with Child Sex Offender Register conditions, which carries a maximum possible sentence of one year in jail. Authorities said he had been on the registry since July 2018 but failed to disclose a Facebook account.

The former secondary school teacher was first sentenced in 2010 to four and a half years in prison for five counts of sexual offending against a young boy from 2006 to 2009. He then targeted a 9-year-old boy after his release on parole in 2014.

"I'm still really concerned about other members of our community," Judge Andree Wiltens said during Wells' sentencing at Manukau District Court in 2015.

Wells was deregistered as a teacher in 2011.

"In a case of this seriousness involving gross indecencies with a school-aged child, it would be unrealistic to think that there is any other option but deregistration," the Teacher's Council Disciplinary Tribunal ruled after a hearing.