SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Hutt Mana Charitable Trust late again with returns, agm – Hutt News

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The Hutt Mana Charitable Trust’s persistent late filing of financial returns risks it being struck off by the Charities Commission, losing its tax exemption status.

The trust looks after about $35 million of assets – the last remnants of the carve-up of power boards in the 1990s – on behalf of Hutt Valley, Porirua and north Wellington people. Its own deed requires a set of financial accounts to be audited and an annual meeting held within five months of the end of its financial year (June 30).

Charities Commission rules allow six months to file returns.

Trust chairman Ian Hutchings said the 2010-2011 accounts were finally signed off last week – nine months after the nominal balance date.

Hutt News put it to him that since the inception of HMCT and its forerunner the Hutt Mana Energy Trust, the accounts and annual meeting have always been late.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/hutt-news/6682643/Charitable-trust-late-again-with-returns-agm

 Hutt News Story by Simon Edwards. 03 April 2012 [Read more…]

Truth Weekender – “objectionable” content – tabloid banned from Auckland Prison

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”The publication [Truth Weekender] is seen…as objectionable and detrimental to rehabilitation [of prisoners] and reducing reoffending. It does not encourage sentence compliance and normalises and supports criminal beliefs and attitudes, … 

The ban ”is due to the negative effect that the sensationalised, and often inaccurate, reporting has on the good order of the prison.”     Corrections Department media advisor  (c.f. ref. 1)

The country’s most dangerous prisoners have been told they are no longer entitled to read New Zealand’s oldest weekly newspaper – a decision which will now go to the high court.

The Department of Corrections’ ruling was last night called ”extraordinary” by a top media law academic and is to become subject of a costly taxpayer-funded judicial review as one of New Zealand’s most prominent and litigious inmates prepares to challenge the decision.

On Monday Corrections bosses notified the Auckland-based publishers of Truth Weekender that their tabloid paper was banned from the maximum security Auckland Prison east division.

The paper has an extensive advertising section for prostitutes with photographs of near-naked females, but this was not what sparked the decision, rather the paper’s journalism was what upset authorities.

Source: Truth Banned From Auckland Prison – Fairfax Media

Story by Jonathan Marshall. 29 June, 2011

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/5203396/Truth-banned-from-Auckland-Prison [Read more…]

Paedophile posted abuse pictures online – dompost news

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For a decade, a former Wellington art gallery owner, Aaron Paul Laurence, 38, committed depraved sex acts on at-risk children, uploading his abuse online to a worldwide audience.

The police summary of facts said he sexually abused eight victims, electronically recording his exploits.

“The defendant has not only sexually offended against his [eight] victims, but by photographing, filming and distributing pictures of the abuse, the victims are victimised repeatedly when their images turn up on the internet.”

Laurence targeted vulnerable boys from troubled homes, in one case sexually abusing his victim after forcing him to watch pornography and giving him cigarettes and cannabis that caused the boy to become intoxicated.

The Dominion Post published the colour photo of the perpetrator of these crimes on p. A15 today using a photo caption headline “Depraved.” . During his appearance in Lower Hutt District Court yesterday, Laurence opposed The Dominion Post’s application to photograph him. [Read more…]

Community standards breached – Is the moral and spiritual welfare of our children at risk?

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Unfit to Teach – the roll of Shame – Dominion Post 13 February. Story by Lane Nichols

Hundreds of teachers have criminal convictions and many are not fit to teach, newly released figures show.

Teachers have been investigated for sexual misconduct, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, incompetence, dishonesty and viewing pornography in the past two years.

The number of complaints has jumped by about half since the Teachers Council was set up in 2002 to vet teachers and independently investigate allegations of serious misconduct.

Of the 664 teachers whose behaviour triggered complaints since November 2009, nearly 300 were convicted of criminal offences.

Fourteen were struck off the Teachers Council register for serious code-of-conduct breaches or criminal offending. In total, nearly 50 teachers were stripped of their teaching licences in the past two years alone.

High-profile cases of misbehaving teachers include:

– A female teacher became pregnant with a 17-year-old high school pupil’s child after they put the school yearbook together.

–  A male teacher was caught with more than 200 pornographic images, including a videotape of his daughter and two foreign exchange students taking showers.

– Other cases include teachers viewing bestiality, committing theft, driving drunk and abusing illicit drugs.

For more see or continue below

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/6406164/Hundreds-of-unfit-teachers-in-class [Read more…]

Changes to Search and Surveillance Bill sought by Parker

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The Dominion Post reports today that Labour shadow attorney-general, David Parker wants National to “curb” Serious Fraud Office powers relating to production and examination orders laid down in the Search and Surveillance Bill. He has written to retiring justice minister Simon Power arguing that the media should be exempted to protect sources and the orders should come from judges rather than by SFO notice. Mr Power responded that exempting the media would give it greater protection than other sectors of society, which was difficult to justify. [Read more…]