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Content warning: This article discusses childhood sexual abuse and suicide. Helplines can be found at the bottom of the page.
Kevin Peter Healy, 84, appeared in the Wellington District Court in December for sentencing on six charges of indecently assaulting young boys back in the 70s and 80s.
The action requires the judge to make an interim suppression order for 20 working days to give the defendant an opportunity to file the appeal. However, Healy has not filed the appeal and his name suppression has now lapsed.
Healy had claimed he was at high risk of suicide if his name were to be published again, but Judge Peter Hobbs said there was not enough evidence to show the risk was serious.
Meanwhile, one of Healy’s victims said he has thought about suicide daily since the offending happened more than 40 years ago.
“I haven’t gone a day without the thought of killing myself,” said one, noting the last time he had tried to end his own life was five years ago.
“The emotional and psychological impact of Kevin’s offending was significant,” he said.
Kevin Healy ahead of his 2020 sentencing for historical sexual abuse of minors. Photo / Paul Taylor
Another victim said the emotional damage had affected him for his whole life. At the time of the offending, he was just 10 years old and was vulnerable after the recent death of his father.
“Kevin preyed on me, targeted me because he knew I was vulnerable.”
Crown prosecutor Harshaa Prasad said Healy had an “overwhelming lack of remorse” for his offending, which happened when he was the principal of the Marist Miramar School.
Healy indecently touched and groped the two victims, aged between 10 and 13, and on one occasion called one of the boys into his office and made him sit on his lap as he showed him a Playboy magazine and touched him.
Kevin Healy has been named in multiple court reports already. Photo / Paul Taylor
Healy has now gone through multiple court cases as his victims continue coming forward more than 40 years on.
He was first sentenced to 10 months of home detention in November 2016, for four charges of indecent assault.
He was then sentenced to a further nine months of home detention for the indecent assault of another four victims in June 2020. In 2022 he received a three-month home detention sentence for offending against three boys as young as nine.
During the 2022 case, Healy, formerly known as Brother Gordon, continued to say he had no recollection of what he did to the children.
When spoken to by police about those charges, he said the complaints against him were lies.
At that sentencing, an earlier victim said he did not make a complaint until news stories appeared about Healy’s earlier convictions for indecencies with boys aged 12 and 13, and one girl under 12, when he was teaching in Wairarapa in 1976 and 1977.
The man said that a former school friend had spoken to him about the reports and told him: “It was lucky it wasn’t us, eh?” Within an hour of hearing this, the man had walked to a police station to make a statement.
While Judge Hobbs noted at the most recent hearing that Healy would likely have gone to prison if the charges were laid when he was younger, he is now too old and “frail” for a prison sentence to be appropriate.
He instead sentenced him to six months of community detention, which he said was more reflective of the current circumstances.
The Marist Brothers are an international Catholic order who have been operating schools in New Zealand since the 19th century. A statement on their website apologises for historical abuse and says the order is “co-operating fully” with the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
Hazel Osborne is an Open Justice reporter for NZME and is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She joined the Open Justice team at the beginning of 2022, previously working in Whakatāne as a court and crime reporter in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
