Convicted sex offender Timothy Jago has been stripped of his Surf Life Saving honours and life membership. Photo / RNZ
Convicted sex offender Timothy Jago has been stripped of his Surf Life Saving honours, awards and life membership.
The disgraced former Act Party president was found guilty in 2024 of sexually abusing two teenagers in the 1990s.
He was sentenced to two years and six months in prison and lost a later appeal against his conviction and sentence.
In an email to members, Surf Life Saving said the move came after a careful and legally guided process.
“At the time of the events referenced, the Northern Region operated as a separate incorporated entity,” chief executive Steve Fisher said.
“Since that time, the Northern Region has been formally incorporated into Surf Life Saving New Zealand.”
Fisher said Surf Life Saving wanted to formally acknowledge the significant impact sexual abuse has on victims and survivors.
“We also recognise that there may be individuals who were present at the time, witnessed concerning behaviour, or felt unable to speak up, and who have carried the weight of these events for many years,” he said.
“If you are someone who has been directly or indirectly affected, we are deeply sorry for the harm caused, and we are committed to supporting you.”
Fisher said Surf Life Saving can offer counselling and confidential support.
An independent lawyer has also been arranged for anyone to provide a formal account to.
“We also acknowledge that further information may emerge, and we remain committed to responding with care, transparency, and responsibility,” Fisher said.
Jago indecently assaulted two teenagers he met through Surf Lifesaving between 1995 and 1999.
Media were not able to identify him during his trial after he was continually granted interim name suppression.
It took a jury two hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts on all eight charges of indecent assault.
The Crown’s case was that Jago “took advantage” of the two teenagers by giving them alcohol and abusing them when they were “intoxicated, vulnerable and alone”.
Both complainants told similar stories; that they had got drunk at sports club events or social gatherings and woken up in bed with the defendant abusing them.
The police investigated a complaint in 1999.
They spoke to more than half a dozen witnesses and recorded a statement from Jago but did not charge him at the time.
The complainant told police he’d been intoxicated at a social gathering, and woke up in Jago’s bed to find Jago squeezing his groin area and putting his own hand on Jago’s pubic area.
The file was re-investigated when a second complainant came forward in late 2022 after seeing Jago in a news article.
The second complainant told police he was assaulted on two separate occasions, when he had been drinking with Jago and others, become drunk and found himself in bed with Jago.
He told police the man touched his penis, put his own penis on the complainant’s anus and touched the complainant’s anus with his hands.
The second complainant had not disclosed the abuse to the police when he had been contacted in early 2000, as part of the 1999 police investigation.
Jago’s lawyer Ian Brookie suggested the second complainant made his allegations up because Jago had done well for himself in a political role.
Crown prosecutor Rebekah Thompson later pointed out this did not square with the fact the man had told his sister about the abuse in the 1990s.
Jago had been the Act Party’s president for nearly four years when he resigned from the role in late January 2023.