National Youth Theatre<\/a>. According to one theatre page, he made his professional debut in 2017 in a production of Puff the Magic Dragon. His other credits include City of 100 Lovers and Cats.<\/p>\nThe theatre organisation said last year it had \u201crigorous policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all our students\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be clear these charges do not relate to his time employed by our organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no suggestion the alleged abuse occurred at the organisation or that the theatre group was aware of the alleged activity.<\/p>\n
In a statement after he lost name suppression last year, Johnston said he was \u201cdevastated, deeply shaken and utterly shocked\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Cole]()
Cole Johnston’s trial is set to start on August 24 next year. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
He told the Herald he would take every step necessary, through the proper legal process, to clear his name.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the public may be interested in this matter, but, as it is now part of a legal process, I cannot make any further comment,\u201d he said at the time. <\/p>\n
At a hearing in July, defence lawyer Sumudu Thode argued Johnston should be granted name suppression as he had already suffered significant consequences.<\/p>\n
Thode alleged that opportunities for him had been cancelled and others he had decided not to pursue.<\/p>\n
Thode said Johnston had also suffered psychological and personal consequences. <\/p>\n
If his suppression was not continued, Thode argued there would be virtually \u201cno prospect\u201d of him recovering from the reputational damage.<\/p>\n
She also said there was a risk his fair trial rights would be prejudiced and his family would suffer extreme hardship.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Emma Kerr said the application for name suppression did not reach the threshold to be granted, nor was there a risk to his fair trial rights.<\/p>\n
Kerr said the charges were serious, the conduct alleged was not \u201cfleeting\u201d and naming him was in the public interest.<\/p>\n
Judge Simon Lance ruled the threshold for extreme hardship had not been met.<\/p>\n
\u201cI concur with the prosecution\u2019s submission that in this case open justice should not yield.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Johnston had not provided any evidence that his existing contracts or opportunities would be terminated if he was named.<\/p>\n
Judge Lance did not accept there was a real risk to Johnston\u2019s fair trial rights.<\/p>\n
Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years\u2019 experience in the industry.<\/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
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnston also faces three charges of committing an indecent act on a young person aged 12 to 15,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19340,1117,29944,51247,51,1873,30591,8615,153365,54983,6119,9881,107825,19134,8456,6868,48958,114191,117,111,43,139,69,193,7680,15386,1529,13506,4741],"class_list":["post-270922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abused","tag-accused","tag-alleging","tag-assaulting","tag-auckland","tag-charges","tag-cole","tag-come","tag-complainants","tag-entertainer","tag-faces","tag-facing","tag-females","tag-forward","tag-fresh","tag-girl","tag-grooming","tag-johnston","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-sex","tag-sexually","tag-three","tag-underage","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270922","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=270922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}