{"id":128462,"date":"2025-11-10T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128462\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T21:05:10","slug":"wesley-college-kitchen-worker-who-lived-on-school-grounds-charged-over-alleged-student-sex-offending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128462\/","title":{"rendered":"Wesley College kitchen worker who lived on school grounds charged over alleged student sex offending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pukekohe District Court documents show the man was charged with sexual connection with a young person, and police confirmed to the Herald he first appeared in court last month. <\/p>\n

The alleged offending occurred in July this year. The man was remanded on bail until his next appearance.<\/p>\n

The family member of the girl believed parents should know about the alleged offending, and by speaking out, they hoped the community could be informed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a child, she is a minor, she is the one being taken advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girl\u2019s relative said the school could foster trust with parents if they were transparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have wanted to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revelations follow the Ministry of Education moving to urgently shut down Wesley\u2019s boarding hostels <\/a>after serious and \u201charmful\u201d incidents related to student safety. Wesley is appealing the timing of the closure and has launched legal action against the ministry. <\/a><\/p>\n

Principal Brian Evans told the Herald the alleged sexual conduct did not play a part in the Ministry\u2019s decision to suspend the school\u2019s hostel licence. <\/p>\n

The complainant in the kitchen worker\u2019s case was not a boarder, Evans said.<\/p>\n

\"WesleyWesley College is on Auckland’s southern border. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n

Evans said the student\u2019s family, police and Oranga Tamariki were immediately informed after the school learned of the allegations in August. <\/p>\n

After being notified of the claims, the man did not return to work.<\/p>\n

He resigned and ended his tenancy at Wesley on August 18, the school said. <\/p>\n

Evans told the Herald the school\u2019s first priority was the wellbeing of the student. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe offered her and her family support, then handed the matter over to police for investigation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe family expressed appreciation for the way the situation was handled under our safeguarding protocols… We have not identified any other students affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans said the school was informed the staffer had messaged other students online.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe immediately followed up with those students who confirmed that the staffer had messaged them and they had not engaged with him. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolice were also made aware that there were other students the staff member had messaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charge, sexual connection with a young person, carries a maximum of 10 years\u2019 imprisonment. <\/p>\n

A Wesley College spokesperson said the worker had passed police vetting and reference checks before being employed.<\/p>\n

Based on Wesley\u2019s investigation and the police inquiry, the school was satisfied there was no further risk to students, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo sharing the information with other parents was not deemed necessary,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers issues such as sexual assault, workplace misconduct, media, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pukekohe District Court documents show the man was charged with sexual connection with a young person, and police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1554,1558,13990,13239,12784,34749,1887,51249,42,11113,1357,43,28703,34962,90,1523,4062,7680,17703,9631,40,38,41,39,67090,1299,102,12767],"class_list":["post-128462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alleged","tag-been","tag-below","tag-charged","tag-college","tag-conduct","tag-countrys","tag-grounds","tag-headlines","tag-kitchen","tag-lived","tag-news","tag-offending","tag-oldest","tag-on","tag-over","tag-school","tag-sex","tag-sexual","tag-student","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wesley","tag-who","tag-with","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}