Teacher Barry Fitz-Gerald loses licence after partner Ben Macaran abuses special needs student in their home

Teacher Barry Fitz-Gerald has had his licence cancelled and his partner Ben Macaran was also censured. Photo / 123rf

A teacher motivated by a genuine desire to help a special needs student instead inadvertently created an environment where his partner was able to sexually abuse the teen.

Barry Fitz-Gerald arranged respite care for the student’s parents and allowed the teen, who had Asperger’s syndrome, to stay overnight at his home.

However, his partner Ben Macaran, who was also a teacher, abused the boy over a period of five years when Fitz-Gerald wasn’t there. He was jailed for four years after the offending was uncovered in 2021.

Now, Fitz-Gerald has had his teaching registration cancelled by the Teachers’ Disciplinary Tribunal and Macaran, whose licence had already lapsed, has been censured.

According to the recently released ruling from the tribunal, Fitz-Gerald had a lengthy career spanning 45 years, including teaching students with special needs.

The student in this case was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and had poor verbal comprehension, speech and social skills resulting in episodes of emotional dysregulation.

Fitz-Gerald arranged respite care with the student’s parents, had the teen stay overnight at his house, and took him away on trips to beaches, cafes and to other cities.

This respite care was done with the parents’ consent but without the school’s knowledge or approval.

However, Fitz-Gerald’s partner, Macaran, with whom he was in a civil union at the time, was left alone during these visits and sexually abused the teen.

The tribunal found that the case was one of the most serious kinds of breaches that it hears.

“The systematic nature of the boundary violations, the vulnerability of the student, and the tragic consequences that followed, demonstrate a complete failure to understand and maintain the fundamental duty of care owed to students,” the tribunal said.

“While we accept that Mr Fitz-Gerald may have been motivated by a genuine desire to help Student A and his family, professional boundaries exist precisely to prevent the kind of harm that occurred here.”

Fitz-Gerald provided limited responses to the tribunal and maintained that he was motivated by a genuine desire to help the student and his parents.

The tribunal said that while he answered questions at a hearing held in June last year, he appeared to show little insight into how his lack of supervision led to the student being abused.

“He took no ownership, attempted to minimise his behaviour and exhibited a complete misunderstanding of what proper supervision requires,” the tribunal said.

Fitz-Gerald is now 76 years old and retired. In 2017, he gave a voluntary undertaking not to teach.

According to a separate ruling released by the tribunal this week, Macaran’s registration was also cancelled for a series of sexual offences against the student when the two were alone together.

This included forcing oral and anal sex on the student, and being present while a stranger had sexual connection with the teenage boy.

The tribunal said Macaran held a position of trust and his offending was “the most serious kind of misconduct”.

“It is clear that Mr Macaran knew [the student’s] age and personal characteristics. He offended against him in his home, where [the student] was invited and went with his parents’ consent, no doubt because it was considered safe,” the tribunal said.

Macaran had retired by the time the tribunal could convene, so it couldn’t cancel his registration as it had already lapsed. Instead, it imposed censure.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.