Former Act Party president Tim Jago denied parole from prison sentence for sexual offending

Former Act Party president Tim Jago kept his name suppression throughout his trial for indecent assault. Composite photo / NZME

Warning: This article deals with sexual offending and may be upsetting to some people.

Former Act Party president Tim Jago will remain behind bars after the Parole Board said he had “very limited acceptance, if any” of the sexual offending that landed him in prison.

Jago appeared before the Parole Board on Tuesday for the first time since he was jailed for two years and six months in November 2024.

In August that year, he was found guilty by a jury of the indecent assault of two teenage boys he mentored through a sports club during the 1990s.

One of the victims was younger than 16 at the time.

Jago denied the offending when charged, took it to a trial and has since appealed against his convictions and sentence to the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal decision has been reserved and is likely to be released shortly.

When before the Parole Board, Jago was asked several times by convenor Kathryn Snook and other panel members if he now accepted he had committed the offending.

He did not give an unequivocal answer.

“I just sort of got to the stage where I say, look, you know, other people say it happened, right?” Jago told the board.

‘I’m prepared to live with that’

“The jury reached a verdict. I’m prepared to live with that. It’s not my recollection of events,” he said.

“The court of public opinion has reached the same result. There’s no point in my pushing back on that. It gets me nowhere.”

The Parole Board was told Jago has been employed in farm work while he serves his sentence at Tongariro Prison.

Tim Jago, seen before a court appearance in 2023, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two boys in the 1990s. Photo / Dean Purcell

He has also been helping other prisoners with their literacy issues.

His lawyer Ian Brookie said the offending was decades ago and Jago had been categorised as at low risk of reoffending.

Even if Jago continued to deny the offending, it did not follow that he must be an “undue risk” and be kept in prison, Brookie said.

But the board declined to release Jago this month, telling him he would be seen again in three months – in December.

Before then, it said Jago should talk to family members and supporters about the offending and come up with an updated safety plan.

This should outline what he will do with his time after being released and how long he planned to stay at his initial release address.

Jago’s statutory release date is in May 2027.

“I want to get out of here and I want to move forward,” Jago told the board.

“I’ve got to live with a label [as a sexual offender] and be perhaps a bit of a target. But I’m okay with that now.”

Jago said he could be a contributing member of society again.

“I want to get out there and give that a crack,” he said.

“I mean, I’m not happy about the label, but I accept it, you know?”

Jago was president of the Act Party from 2019 to January 2023, when the criminal charges were laid.

The trial jury reached unanimous guilty verdicts on eight charges of indecent assault involving the two teenagers.

Jago had name suppression from the time he was charged and fought to maintain it throughout his trial and even after he had been sentenced.

It lapsed in January this year.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.