Reprieve for postie accused of delivering more than just mail

A postie sacked for allegedly sexually harassing women on his delivery round has won his job back. File photo / NZ Herald

A postie sacked for allegedly sexually harassing women on his delivery round has won his job back after the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found New Zealand Post did not conduct a full and fair investigation into the allegations.

Doug Behan-Kitto was sacked in November last year after two women complained he had started spending an unwarranted amount of time at their houses and making sexual comments to them.

One of the woman, a tattooist, claimed he had sent her a text message which said he wanted to get a tattoo "of a horse like the National Bank" on his penis.

She wrote a text saying she did not do tattoos in that area, but before she had time to send it, he sent another message asking "do you want a horsey ride?".

The woman's house was near a carport that Mr Behan-Kitto used as a "bag stop" to store mail while making deliveries.

The woman complained that he became "over the top" and started making sexual remarks like "hi sexy" and came into her house and helped himself to food.

He also allegedly started bad-mouthing her partner and told her there was a rumour that she and Mr Behan-Kitto were having an affair.

She gave him her telephone number because she wanted him to tell his friends about her tattoo work, which gave rise to the "horsey texts".

In August, Mr Behan-Kitto himself made a complaint to the police about being attacked by two men outside the woman's house.

One of the men reportedly told him: "you've been f***ing with my Mrs" and made him apologise to the woman.

He was off work for four weeks due to his injuries.

New Zealand Post also received a complaint from another woman alleging Mr Behan-Kitto had delivered a magazine to her door rather than leaving it in the letterbox.

He later sent her a message on internet dating site NZ Dating asking "how was the mag???".

A New Zealand Post investigation found eight allegations against Mr Behan-Kitto were substantiated, with seven amounting to minor misconduct and the "horsey texts" to serious misconduct.

However, the ERA found New Zealand Post investigators should have had more doubt about the reliability of the women's complaints.

Had they been provided with the full extent of the electronic exchanges between Mr Behan-Kitto and the first woman - as was provided for the ERA - they probably would have reservations about upholding her complaint.

For example, she described a photo of Mr Behan-Kitto as "looking damn good", and invited him to "come partake with me sometime".

In response to Mr Behan-Kitto writing "u hvnt left my mind since we met", the woman replied: "I know the feeling its been the same for me".

Furthermore, investigators had not checked whether the "horsey texts" had even been sent from Mr Behan-Kitto's phone, and had relied on the woman's word for it. Mr Behan-Kitto denied having sent the texts.

ERA member Robin Arthur ordered that Mr Behan-Kitto be reinstated to his job and be paid $2000 compensation for distress which arose from being labelled a sexual harasser on the basis of inadequate evidence.

- NZPA