The Herald can reveal another complaint has been laid against the New Zealand Law Society president. Video / Ben Dickens / Michael Morrah
The chief executive officer (CEO) of Presbyterian Support Otago (PSO) has resigned, saying the fallout from the abuse in care inquiry in care had taken its toll.
PSO is a church group exposed for destroying children’s records because they were “too much of a risk”.
PSO CEO Jo O’Neill toldthe Herald it has “been a long five years” with the organisation, especially fronting to explain to the Royal Commission what took place at PSO before her tenure as the boss.
“This is a massive scar on the nation and on organisations like PSO. I would be lying if I said it hadn’t taken a toll on me. It is something that I have carried with me since we started the investigation back in 2020.”
The outgoing CEO of Presbyterian Support Otago, Jo O'Neill. Photo / Presbyterian Support Otago
She will leave the role next Friday but said it was not because she no longer wanted to be associated with PSO.
“We have to understand what happened (in the past) to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. But no, I am not dissociating myself from PSO. I think it’s an amazing organisation.”
According to the Royal Commission of Inquiry abuse in care final report, records were destroyed because a PSO senior staff member decided they were “too much of a risk”.
Between 2017 and 2018, the former chief executive of PSO, Gillian Bremner, instructed a staff member to destroy all records belonging to children and young people who had stayed in its residential homes.
The Herald revealed a complaint was laid against lawyer Frazer Barton, who was a board member at PSO at the time, after he advised Bremner the records could be destroyed at an “appropriate time”.
Barton, who is the president of the NZ Law Society, has subsequently taken leave from his role as president while complaints are investigated.
The NZ Law Society’s vice-president, David Campbell, said Barton’s responsibilities will be delegated to other board members in the interim.
Frazer Barton has taken leave as president of the New Zealand Law Society after complaints about his conduct.
Barton said the advice he gave was “informal”.
“Any suggestion I advised the then-CEO to destroy the documents in 2017/2018 is incorrect. As the report makes clear, I was asked for informal advice by the then-CEO while I was a board member, and it was in this capacity I gave the advice,” he said.
“I said PSO had to provide a survivor’s records to their legal representative and that the documents could only be destroyed later ‘at an appropriate milestone or anniversary’.”
At least two formal complaints have been made about Barton’s conduct, including one from Cooper Legal partner Sam Benton.
The Royal Commission also heard evidence about an alleged paedophile ring operating at PSO’s Dunedin Glendining Presbyterian Children’s Home in the 1950s.
The Commission received six different complaints relating to the Glendining home.
One witness alleged that from the age of 5 she was passed around a group of paedophiles made up of Presbyterian Church parish members.
The executive secretary of the church, Reverend Wayne Matheson, said at the time the information was “utterly distressing” and came as a “complete shock”.
O’Neill said it had been a difficult time.
“It’s been a long five years. I’ve been dealing with several things within the organisation including covid and the Royal Commission and everything that has come from that in a very constrained environment.
“I have dealt with things that really needed to be dealt with and that was fronting up to the Royal Commission and making sure we were open, honest and transparent as an organisation.”
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won the best coverage of a major news event at the 2024 Voyager NZ Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald in July 2024.
