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Reports on sexual predator teachers compel Minister to order urgent review of teacher registration

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Education Minister Hekia Parata has finally ordered an urgent review into the cancellation of teacher registrations for those with serious convictions after it was revealed in the media that three convicted sex offenders still remain registered: (1) deputy school principal James Robertson Parker – sentenced to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of seven years after admitting to having committed 74 sex offences against 20 school boys aged 9 to 16 at the time, and dating from 1999 to 2012. He admitted five charges of sexual violation involving two of the boys. (2) Andrew Ray Loader, the Otumoetai College teacher who paid $240 to twice watch teenagers have sex and who was sentenced to 100 hours’ community work in March 2013 (the charge was laid under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003); and (3) Douglas Haora Martin, former assistant principal of Lincoln High School, who filmed up the skirts of 20 unsuspecting girls and women, pleaded guilty in January 2013, and was sentenced in April to 10 months’ home detention. All three [sexual] “predators”, as the NZ Herald refers to them, remain on the Teachers Council register.

As of 11 September 2013:

1. James Robertson Parker (Reg. No. 217428) [referred to as a ‘parasitic paedophile and “one of New Zealand’s worst paedophiles” in a TV 3 News report], is recorded on the Teachers Council website as holding Full Teacher Registration with a practicing certificate that will expire on 5 Oct 2014. The Annotation states “Referred to the Disciplinary Tribunal”. Parker was deputy principal of Pamapuria Primary, Northland when he was first charged with sexual offences against schoolboys.  Despite over a year ago admitting “guilty” to the 74 sex charges relating to sleepovers with boys at his Awanui farm between 1999 and 2012 (the court was told the charges related to upwards of 300 offences) he retains Full Registration.

2. Andrew Ray Loader (Reg. No. 131751) is listed as holding Full Teacher Registration with a “Practicing Certificate” that will expire on 22 September 2015. An “Annotation” states that he “Voluntarily agreed not to teach pending completion of conduct investigation”. The only thing stopping his return to the classroom is that he has “voluntarily agreed” to stop teaching. Therefore despite conviction he is still officially recorded as retaining full teacher registration.

3. Douglas Haora Martin (Reg. No. 133887) is listed as holding Full Teacher Registration with a practicing certificate that expired on 13 April 2013. The Annotation states “Referred to the Disciplinary Tribunal”.

As the NZ Herald reported on Sunday 8 September:

The Teachers Council maintains the register of teachers, which notes any disciplinary action taken. Teachers seriously sanctioned remain on the register with the words “cancelled” and “censured” beside their names – but not Parker, Loader and Martin. They are listed as having full registration.

The council’s director, Peter Lind, is overseas and didn’t comment, but a spokesman said it took time and “due process” for teachers to be deregistered.

It is more than a year since Parker’s August 2012 guilty plea to offending against boys, and three weeks have passed since he was sentenced to preventive detention on 74 sex charges.

The Teachers Council’s complaints assessment committee waited until Parker’s sentencing notes were available before referring him to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal, which has the power to cancel his registration – but hasn’t yet acted.

Manager of teacher practice Andrew Greig said: “It is important that due process is followed and that natural justice occurs, which is why these processes do take time.”

Only the Disciplinary Tribunal can remove a teacher from the register, and only once the complaints assessment committee has investigated.

Greig said Parker was referred to the tribunal as soon as his sentencing notes were available. “Because the tribunal is able to use the sentencing notes and witness statements as evidence, it means that witnesses do not have to be called before the tribunal.

In the Far North, Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngati Kahu chief executive Anahera Herbert-Graves reacted angrily to the news James Parker was still a registered teacher. “You’re kidding? What bastards. Honestly, I just don’t know where the hell their heads are.”

Post Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts said parts of the discipline and deregistration process “absolutely” needed refinement. “‘If somebody pleads guilty there should be a fast-track process.

Sources

Predators still on Teachers Council Register

By Kathryn Powley. Sept 8, 2013

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11121378

Community work for voyeur teacher

By Sandra Conchie. Mar 16, 2013

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11093674

James Parker a ‘parasitic paedophile’

TV 3 Report. Wednesday 12 June 2013

http://www.3news.co.nz/James-Parker-a-parasitic-paedophile/tabid/1771/articleID/301196/Default.aspx

Radio NZ Morning Report. (Monday, 9 September)

The Teachers’ Council says it will meet as soon as possible with the Ministry of Education following revelations teachers, including paedophiles, remain registered even after pleading guilty to dangerous crimes…..

For full report go to:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2568576/unions-says-deregistration-of-dangerous-teachers-needs-changing

Child abuser James Parker sentenced to preventative detention

By Matthew Theunissen  Thursday Aug 15, 2

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10912715

Urgent review of teacher registration ordered

Dominion Post Wednesday 11 September 2013 p. A2

Incredible failures allowed sexual predator to offend – Opinion: Dominion Post editorial

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JAMES PARKER should never have been let past the gates of a school, let alone into a classroom. He should never have been in a position where he could be alone with children, and he certainly should not have been allowed to invite them into his home for sleepovers.

Parker, who has been a teacher since 1999, this week pleaded guilty to 49 charges of indecent assault, performing an indecent act and unlawful sexual connection relating to the abuse of 12 pupils at Kaitaia’s Pamapuria School, where he was the deputy principal.

The abuse occurred despite police warning the school in a strongly worded letter in 2009 that he should not have pupils staying in his house overnight. That warning came after police investigated a complaint about him, but were unable to gather sufficient evidence to prosecute.

Incredibly, the school did nothing, and Parker was able to continue offending.

Even more incredible is the revelation that Parker was flagged as a potential predator in 1999, when he was still a student teacher at another school. Teachers Council director Peter Lind says the then Teachers Registration Board had contact from that school, which raised concerns about Parker’s “professional boundaries”.

The school did not want the concerns taken any further, and a few months later made an application for him to progress from provisional to full registration.

The litany of failures that allowed him to worm his way into a position where he could groom and abuse victims will deeply trouble all mums and dads.

Schools should be safe places for kids. When parents drop their kids at the gates or wave them goodbye as they head out the door, they should do so in the knowledge they are not being put in harm’s way.

It is for those in positions of responsibility to ensure that is so. In Parker’s case, at least two schools failed to take action in the face of concerns that should have set alarm bells ringing.

Pamapuria’s board of trustees has resigned since Parker’s arrest, and a commissioner is now running the school. Police are continuing their investigations into Parker, and the school is also reviewing its policies and procedures.

A further investigation is warranted to determine how Parker came to be registered, why earlier unease about him was not acted upon and whether there are appropriate systems to vet teachers and act when concerns are raised.

In the meantime, Kataia community leader Ricky Houghton says great efforts are being made to support Parker’s victims and reassure them that what happened was not their fault.

That is to be commended. It is not Parker’s victims who are to blame, but those who failed to protect them.

Source:  Opinion:Editorial Incredible failures allowed sexual predator to offend

The Dominion Post, Saturday, August 25, 2012, p. C4.

Predator teacher ‘flagged’ in 1999 but gets OK from New Zealand Teachers’ Council

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A Northland deputy principal who has admitted sexually abusing pupils was flagged as a potential predator in 1999 as a student teacher but signed off as suitable anyway.

Despite a further warning in 2009 – that time by police – he was allowed to continue as a teacher for 11 years until his arrest last month.

Concerns about James Parker were first lodged with the Teachers’ Council when he was a provisional teacher, having newly started in the profession.

Parker pleaded guilty in Kaitaia District Court this week to 49 charges of indecent assault, performing an indecent act and of unlawful sexual connection.

The attacks, on boys aged under 16, occurred over nearly eight years at Pamapuria School.

Teachers’ Council director Peter Lind said concerns surrounding Parker’s ability to work around children began when he was teaching on a provisional licence at another school.

Concerns were lodged with the Teachers Registration Board, now known as the Teachers’ Council.

“We had contact in 1999 from the school and there were concerns raised about his professional boundaries,” he said.

“But the school did not want those concerns taken any further and his application to move from a provisional registration to a full registration was made by that school some months later.”

A decade later police received a complaint from a child via a parent and investigated Parker.

They could not gather enough evidence at the time to prosecute Parker and instead wrote to the school to alert the board of trustees about concerns.

However, the board did not act on the letter, did not advise the Education Review Office and did not advise the Teachers’ Council.

Mr Lind said because of the original 1999 contact, if concerns were raised again an alert status would have been activated on Parker.

“But the council itself received no further concerns about professional performance about this particular teacher.”

Pamapuria School principal Stephen Hovell has been stood down during the investigation and could not be contacted.

The Pamapuria board of trustees has resigned and a commissioner has been put in to run the school.

Detective Inspector Karyn Malthus said yesterday that children were interviewed in 2009 and the matter could not be substantiated.

“Police reject any suggestion that we were responsible for any inaction. We took all steps possible within the law to make the appropriate notifications,” she said.

“Police did interview Parker and notified the school of their remaining concerns.

“We could not sustain any allegations and were therefore limited in what we could do.”

Ms Malthus said charges were laid when further evidence came to light recently.

That investigation continues despite Parker’s guilty plea on Wednesday.

Police were continuing to work with Child, Youth and Family and the Education Ministry in supporting the victims and their families, Ms Malthus said.

Parker’s fall from grace has come in the same week former ombudsman Mel Smith released a report into how sex offender Te Rito Henry Miki managed to evade detection and work as a teacher at six schools.

Mr Smith said what happened with Parker matched what he uncovered with Miki – there were several organisations and individuals that should have acted but who dropped the ball.

Mr Smith said the Government had accepted or partially accepted 36 of his 39 recommendations but had yet to put them into practice.

Even with his recommendations implemented, offences could still occur, he said. But the process would be sufficiently “tight” to ensure it was more likely that offending teachers would be detected early.

“You’ve got to remember that there are more than 70,000 registered teachers . . . and then there are all the other people involved in school, from caretakers through to contractors.”

Source: The Dominion Post, Friday, August 24, 2012, p. A4.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7538086/Predator-teacher-flagged-in-1999

Fairfax NZ News story.

Paedophile easily got jobs at six New Zealand schools

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People “looked the other way” and allowed a convicted paedophile to work among children at six different schools over six years, a ministerial inquiry has found.

The report into the case of Te Rito Henry Miki, led by former ombudsman Mel Smith, was released yesterday.

It found “several factors” besides Miki’s “personal duplicity” had allowed his “relatively easy entry to teaching positions” despite dozens of criminal convictions, including for an indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy.

Education Minister Hekia Parata insisted “system failures rather than people failures” were to blame.

But Mr Smith last night said there were “both system failings and human failings” in the case.

“I identified the systems failings, the human failings and then provided opportunities to rectify those,” he said.

“There were people who knew his background and looked the other way.”

Mr Smith said he had “some concerns” that “some people knew his background but still employed him” but had been unable to confirm those.

His report said there had been a “failure of knowledgeable individuals to advise relevant authorities of Miki’s probable identity and criminal history” and a “willingness of individuals to pretend ignorance as to his real and stolen identities”.

“It just didn’t happen within the police,” he said.

“I found it difficult to understand how he could pull the wool over experienced probation officers’ eyes but, nevertheless, that’s what happened.”

A new 24-hour satellite surveillance programme for high-risk offenders would have prevented Miki’s offending, he said.

While under an extended supervision order for his offending, Miki used a fake CV and birth certificate to gain employment during the six years to January 2012 in six North Island schools.

In 2009, he was arrested on the grounds of a Tauranga school where he had been working, only to go on to work at another school in Auckland.

After accumulating 53 fake identities, Miki was finally arrested in February this year and pleaded guilty in April to seven charges of fraud and four counts of breaching parole conditions.

The report pinpointed Miki’s arrest at Tauranga as one of several missed opportunities to eliminate him from teaching.

The Tauranga school’s principal had “erroneously assumed” his arrest would get to the Teachers Council via the police.

One “diligent” Tauranga constable, a former teacher, had also “located all the information needed to expose Miki, but was deterred” by a lack of the necessary paperwork.

“It was clear that potentially useful information about Miki was lost because at least one concerned person was put off by overly dogmatic bureaucracy,” the report found.

Teachers Council director Peter Lind said the council had been let down.

“Not only had the principal not reported to us, the courts hadn’t reported to us nor had New Zealand Police reported to us,” he said.

However, the people involved should get “the benefit of the doubt” and the fault lay with the systems.

“Yes, they should have done that. But then we also need to say what is it that we need to do to ensure that we don’t get another Miki slipping through the cracks,” Dr Lind said.

Ms Parata said the case provided a “very serious wake-up call” for the whole state sector.

The Government had accepted or partially accepted 36 of the 39 actions recommended by the inquiry. Three were still being considered, including for biometric photographic evidence to be required for all teachers.

Source: Paedophile easily got jobs at six schools. By John Hartevelt and Andrea Vance

The Dominion Post, Wednesday, August 22, 2012, p. A3

Fairfax NZ News

– © Fairfax NZ News