North Shore primary school teacher accused of paying boys for sex

The boys received payments from the teacher for him to perform sex acts on them. Photo / NZ Herald

An Auckland primary school teacher has been accused of the sexual grooming of two young boys, but by yesterday the man and his school had not told the Teachers Council about the case.

The middle-aged man, granted name suppression when he appeared in the North Shore District Court yesterday, is employed on the North Shore. He will reappear next month.

The Teachers Council said neither the man nor his school had informed it of the charges, as expected under Ministry of Education policy, and it had not been aware of the case until the Weekend Herald contacted it yesterday.

The teacher is alleged to have formed separate relationships with the boys between September 2005 and September last year, when they were aged between 12 and 16, grooming them to a point where they were receiving payments of an undisclosed amount for him to perform sex acts on them.

Two of six charges before the courts relate to the alleged grooming of the boys when they were aged under 16.

The charges against the teacher are complex because the boys were 16 - the age of consent - when the alleged arrangements continued.

Two of the charges have been laid under the Prostitution Reform Act because although the boys were of age, it is illegal to pay a person aged under 18 for sexual services.

Teachers Council director Peter Lind said a school's board was allowed to apply to the Ministry of Education to suspend a teacher on full pay until a court case ended.

"Similarly, the council has the ability to suspend the practice certificate of the teacher through application to the Disciplinary Tribunal if there is a threat to children or young people.

"The safety of children or young people in a case such as abuse of children - or, for this particular case, of [alleged] grooming ... would be considered very serious."

Mr Lind said the school should have contacted the council. "We would be expecting some notifications from the school and that a mandatory report would be made to us."

Attempts to reach the school's principal yesterday were unsuccessful.

THE PROSECUTION ALLEGES ...
(involving two male victims)

* Two charges of indecent assault on a boy aged under 16.
* Two charges of entering a monetary arrangement with a boy aged 16 to allow the teacher to perform sexual acts on him.
* Two charges that he arranged for a boy under 16 to travel with him with the intention of committing an indecent act on the boy.