Former music teacher Leonard Cave, who abused students at Dilworth School in Remuera and St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton over a span of five decades, was chastised today for minimising his offending as "clowning around" as a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison.
Earlier in the hearing, the 75-year-old had sat quietly in the dock as his lawyer, Warren Pyke, read aloud a short apology letter on his behalf. It marked Cave's first time publicly acknowledging some guilt.
"I would like you to know how dreadful I feel," he wrote.
"I somehow imagined that this had been a mutual adventure ... I wish it had never happened. I behaved dreadfully and the bad feelings will haunt me forever."
But it didn't address all of his victims and came too little too late, prosecutors suggested, noting that Cave also told a pre-sentence report writer that the offending was the result of "clowning and horsing around" and was "immature and stupid".
Jurors in the High Court at Auckland returned guilty verdicts in June - following seven days of testimony - for 11 charges of historic offending that included indecent assault, indecency between males, sexual violation, and supplying cannabis and LSD to students.
Cave had used his career "as a vehicle to prey on young men", prosecutor Jacob Barry told jurors at the end of the trial, pointing out that all six complainants knew him through a teaching relationship.
One of the victims, in a statement read aloud by prosecutors today, said it was "utterly indefensible" that Cave "subjected us all to the indignity and trauma" of a trial. After 40 years of trying not to think about his victimisation, he said he's spent the past two years worrying about having to relive it on the witness stand - and the possibility of not being believed.
"You chose to lie. You allowed this to continue, to expose me to a further two years of trauma, anxiety and sleepless nights," he said, adding that Cave could have fallen on his sword when the allegations finally came to light. "You chose self-preservation.
"...You deserve everything you get."
Among those who testified against Cave at trial was a former Dilworth student who recounted the teacher grabbing his crotch near the school's chapel in the early 1970s. He said he complained to the principal at the time but no action was taken.
Cave left the school to travel abroad but was rehired as head of the music department in 1975 and remained there for the next 10 years. In that role, he was accused by four boys of sexual abuse during visits to his bach on Waiheke Island.
The fourth boy told his mother about the abuse in 1985, and she reported it to Dilworth. Cave left the school soon after, though it was never referred to police.
Cave went on to teach at St Paul's Collegiate, where he was accused of abusing a student there. The student reported it to police in 2012 and an investigation was started but no charges were laid.
In other victim impact statements read aloud by prosecutors today, a former Dilworth student and the former St Paul's Collegiate student both described periods of depression and anxiety resulting from their abuse.
As he suffered, the Dilworth student noted, Cave's offending was allowed to continue as he relished in praise for his teaching.
The other student said he carried anger for years and his self-confidence was ground down.
"I'm not sure I will ever be free of the damage inflicted on me by Leonard Cave," he wrote.
While announcing her sentencing decision today, Justice Mary Peters noted that Cave was only convicted for five of his six accusers. She said she wanted the sixth accuser to know, if he was "listening to this or reading this", that the two charges regarding him were dismissed only due to uncertainty about his age at the time.
Cave was ordered to serve four years for one of the indecency charges, with an additional four-year sentence for sexual violation stacked on top to be served consecutively. His sentences for all other charges, which ranged from one to two years' prison, are to be served concurrently. In addition, his name will be added to the child sex offender registry.
The end sentence of eight years takes into account a minor reduction due to Caves' son suffering a terminal illness, likely to die while he is in prison. But the judge declined to give him a discount for having finally acknowledged some of his offending.
"You could have spared them but you did not," she said of the victims having to testify,
Justice Peters also didn't "accept for a moment" his suggestion that the offending amounted to "horsing around", she said. As for his suggestion the offending was the result of being "immature and stupid", she pointed out that he was in his 30s during some of his offending and in his 50s when another student was victimised.
His assertion that he has been hounded by the media over the past two years equates more to misplaced self-pity than to a "heartfelt apology", she added.
Cave wasn't arrested until the conclusion of Operation Beverly in 2020. The police investigation followed an internal inquiry by the school after it was alerted to historic abuse by a former student.
Justice Peters noted that Dilworth has long had a reputation as a means to lift boys from disadvantaged families.
"Getting into Dilworth was no mean feat," she said. "A parent who got their son into Dilworth thought they had struck the jackpot."
Cave, she said, took advantage of that goodwill.
In all, 12 people associated with Dilworth School have been accused of sexual offending between the 1970s and 2000s. Three of the accused have died, and another three have been convicted. Cave's case was the first to go to trial.
At the conclusion of today's hearing, Dilworth Trust Board chairman Aaron Snodgrass issued a statement similar to the ones released after the recent sentencings of other former staff. It emphasised that the school has "actively made major changes" to address issues that have come to light since Operation Beverly.
"We acknowledge the courage of all Old Boy survivors who laid complaints and had their voices heard, and crimes against them acknowledged, during Cave's trial," Snodgrass said. "We are deeply sorry for the hurt caused to Old Boy survivors. The abuse suffered by some of the Old Boys in Dilworth's care is, and was, completely unacceptable.
"Cave's offending was a gross breach of trust, and today's sentencing is a further step towards justice for our Old Boy survivors."
Reporter Isaac Davison contributed to this report.