Sex offender still registered on teacher website

A convicted offender is still registered on the Teachers Council website despite being convicted for molesting boys in two different schools.

Elvis Dobson Shepherd was found guilty of four indecent assault charges against two teenagers in the High Court at Palmerston North on Friday.

The offences took place while Shepherd was teaching at Hato Petera College, a Maori Catholic boarding school on Auckland's North Shore.

Shepherd found employment at Maori boarding school Hato Paora near Palmerston North despite allegations of sexual encounters with boys at his previous post.

Former Hato Petera trust board member Ashley Balls said Shepherd "deserted his post" before the allegation was properly investigated. He then became deputy principal of Hato Paora in Feilding in 2002.

Balls said he called Hato Paora to warn them about Shepherd's past when he found information about the incident in the school files years later.

But Hato Paora took no action and in 2007 two students came forward with allegations of sexual abuse. The school investigated, but found there was no case to answer.

However, the Ministry of Education suspended Shepherd in November 2007.

But Balls said it was "odd" that the Teachers Council still had Shepherd listed on full registration. Balls described the situation as "political correctness gone mad".

"They couldn't take the complaint to the Teachers Council because they hadn't got anything provable."

Minister of Education Anne Tolley said she had complete confidence in the processes that would be followed by the Teachers Council to ensure Shepherd was never allowed in a classroom again. She said the Government also recently introduced much greater protection by passing data-matching laws which would mean this man would be identified if he ever sought employment at a school.

In June, the Herald on Sunday revealed that three teachers who were sacked or quit over misconduct were still registered to teach on the official database that was supposed to warn parents and schools. The teachers kept their legal right to work in a classroom despite complaints to the New Zealand Teachers Council.