At this point, the judge noted, it\u2019s up to the Parole Board<\/a> to decide when it\u2019s safe to release Afeaki. He declined a request from the defence for additional sentence reductions based on Afeaki\u2019s ailing health.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope this recognises the fortitude and bravery of the complainants who have come forward,\u201d Judge Davidson said, noting that the law prevented him from approaching the sentence on a standalone basis.<\/p>\n Because the abuse was from the same period as the other offences, he needed to consider the original sentence then decide what additional time the original judge would have allotted had all of Afeaki\u2019s crimes been known then.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat, for me, emerges … are the lifelong effects of such offending,\u201d the judge said, referring to the three new victim impact statements. \u201cThese include significant emotional, financial and psychological damage. These are effects that do not go away, and in many cases compound.\u201d<\/p>\n School camp victims<\/p>\n Afeaki, then known as Brother Charles, taught at the now defunct Marist Brothers Primary School in Invercargill<\/a> from 1973 to 1977, before moving to the Whanganui school and later Auckland to teach at St Paul\u2019s College in Ponsonby.<\/p>\n It was under the guise of discipline, often for alleged minor infractions, that he would inflict sadistic sexual abuse on children.<\/p>\n Two of the latest victims were targeted during a school camp when Afeaki was working in Whanganui. The boys, both 11, got into trouble after performing a prank.<\/p>\n \u201cAs punishment, the defendant told [them] they would be sleeping in his bivouac because they could not be trusted,\u201d court documents state.<\/p>\n One of the victims would tell police decades later that as he lay in his sleeping bag that night \u2013 facing the wall, with his back to Afeaki \u2013 he \u201ccould hear something happening between his friend and the defendant but he was scared and did not turn over to look\u201d.<\/p>\n A short time later, he recalled, Afeaki rolled over, away from the friend, and crawled into his sleeping bag with him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe victim, feeling scared, had not moved and the defendant positioned himself behind the victim facing his back,\u201d according to the summary of facts Afeaki agreed to. \u201cThe defendant put his hand over the victim\u2019s mouth to stop him from crying out, which caused him to struggle to breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n He then sexually violated the boy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe following morning, the defendant told the two boys to behave, or he would tell their parents about [the prank],\u201d documents state.<\/p>\n The abuse continued during the following nights at camp and later on school grounds.<\/p>\n The two boys never spoke with each other about what had happened to them at the school camp.<\/p>\n But the other victim, the friend, would eventually tell police that he had been targeted by Afeaki for abuse throughout that school year.<\/p>\n \u201cI am your teacher, and I love you,\u201d he recalled the defendant saying as he forced himself on the boy.<\/p>\n As a result of that horror year, the victim said he has suffered lifelong post-traumatic stress disorder that was only recently diagnosed. It got so bad amid the police investigation that he can no longer work, he said, explaining that he had a \u201ctotal emotional breakdown\u201d after he was asked to provide a witness statement for the other victim and ended up becoming a complainant himself.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring that year, the abuse was relentless,\u201d he recalled, describing a \u201csystematic campaign of psychological and sexual abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cCharles Afeaki weaponised my faith and forced me away from the church … The abuse I suffered under Charles Afeaki … resulted in permanent psychological injury.\u201d<\/p>\n The other victim who was in the tent with Afeaki said the abuse has caused \u201cpain and damage\u201d throughout his life, including serious trust issues that prompted him to ruin every relationship. He described himself as a prisoner in his own mind.<\/p>\n \u2018I know there are more\u2019<\/p>\n The third victim, targeted at St Paul\u2019s College in 1980 when he was 12 years old, was abused on one occasion after he gave Afeaki the finger gesture for a reason he no longer remembers.<\/p>\n Afeaki grabbed the boy and took him to his living quarters, pushing him on to a couch and asking the boy if he knew what the middle-finger gesture meant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means f*** you. You want me to f*** you then?\u201d the defendant said as he pulled his own pants down, forced the boy on to his stomach and tried to pull his pants down as well.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, no, please stop!\u201d the boy pleaded, but Afeaki slapped him as he resisted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe victim realised he was about to be sexually violated,\u201d the agreed facts state. \u201cIn his final attempt to stop the defendant, the victim started yelling at the top of his voice, abusing the defendant.<\/p>\n \u201cThis caused the defendant to stop. The defendant sat the victim up, telling him to sit there until he calmed down.\u201d<\/p>\n The boy was allowed to leave after about 30 minutes.<\/p>\n For decades, the victim didn\u2019t tell anyone about what happened. Then in December 2024, he had a medical episode that he thought he might not survive and decided to tell his wife, not wanting to go to his grave with another man\u2019s shameful secret.<\/p>\n When he read an online Herald article<\/a> months later outlining Afeaki\u2019s criminal history, he decided he needed to speak out<\/a>. A Herald reporter helped put him in touch with detectives who were already investigating Afeaki again for the Whanganui school camp incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cI know there are more of Afeaki\u2019s victims out there and I hope they too will find the courage to come forward,\u201d he told the Herald recently after confronting Afeaki in court. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t our fault, we did nothing wrong, and Afeaki needs to be held accountable for what he has done to us.<\/p>\n \u201cThe penalties imposed may be disappointing, but the satisfaction of him not getting away with it will make it worthwhile and will help give you some peace. I almost didn\u2019t come forward as I believed for 46 years I had been his only victim, along with the fear of not being believed.\u201d<\/p>\n Sentence \u2018an insult\u2019<\/p>\n The survivor described the officers who worked with him on the case as \u201cexceptional\u201d, but he left the sentencing last week disappointed in the court system in general.<\/p>\n \u201cAfeaki in the past has sought sympathy for losing a hearing aid, had a hernia operation, his frail declining health and so on but never once fully acknowledged his offending or the harm he has caused,\u201d the victim said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese days, if you plead guilty, say sorry and say you had a hard upbringing, you get huge discounts off your sentences. As victims, what do we get? We live in a world where offenders have more rights than their victims.\u201d<\/p>\n He also expressed frustration that Afeaki\u2019s sentence had not grown more substantial as each victim bravely steps forward, describing the 18 months imposed last week as \u201can insult compared to the lifelong harm he has caused\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy give a serial sex offender like Afeaki any kind of discount?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had the opportunity years ago to admit to police there were other victims. He could have given the police our names then, rather than wait to see if we would come forward. His cowardly silence has only worked in his favour, not ours.\u201d<\/p>\n In some of the cases he\u2019s been convicted for, Afeaki told authorities he didn\u2019t remember the accuser nor the allegation he had pleaded guilty to, but he accepted he must have done it because it matched so closely how he had victimised other boys.<\/p>\n Comments like that were concerning, the latest complainant said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sounds so unbelievably sick to me,\u201d he explained. \u201cEither he is a pathological liar, or there are just too many of us to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he suspected Afeaki claiming he didn\u2019t remember individual victims was \u201cjust his way of further trying to hurt us for coming forward\u201d.<\/p>\n Two monsters, one regret<\/p>\n The victim recalled how he had already fallen prey to another \u201cmonster\u201d who repeatedly sexually abused him as a child when he was put into care while his mother, a single parent, was treated for cancer.<\/p>\n \u201cWith no one to turn to, my only escape from the abuse was the death of my mother at age 9,\u201d he said, explaining that by the time he ended up at the boarding school in Ponsonby, he was \u201ca silent sufferer, mentally damaged and emotionally screwed up \u2013 living in a world of heartache and pain constantly hiding behind a fake smile\u201d.<\/p>\n And Afeaki, he said, managed to rob him of \u201cwhatever courage and trust I had left\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a male, I think it\u2019s harder to report sexual abuse when you have been abused by someone of the same sex,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just reliving the nightmare. It\u2019s telling people things that you don\u2019t even want to admit to yourself happened to you.<\/p>\n \u201cLike most, I\u2019ve always had a fear of not being believed. I\u2019m ashamed and embarrassed it happened to me. I question why me and what did I do to deserve this.\u201d<\/p>\n As a student at St Paul\u2019s, he was fit and strong, he recalled, wondering still to this day how it could have happened to him.<\/p>\n While it was somewhat disappointing travelling to court only to speak to a TV screen and watching Afeaki get \u201cthe equivalent to a smack on the hand\u201d, there would have been a bigger mental toll had he not come forward, he said.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, he said, he knew that from experience.<\/p>\n Multiple times throughout his adulthood, the man recalled, he had sat outside the house of his first abuser but never confronted him or gone to police. It had been about 12 years since he had last done so, when he learned about Afeaki\u2019s other victims. He was finally considering having his voice heard for both matters, but then he found the first abuser\u2019s obituary.<\/p>\n \u201cI sat there stunned, shocked, numb and ashamed I\u2019d kept it a secret \u2013 letting him go to his grave without facing justice,\u201d he said. \u201cI know I\u2019ll regret it for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s haunted my memories for 52 years and will continue to shadow my memories. I know he needed to be held accountable. [The earlier reluctance to come forward] was just not wanting to reveal to anyone the sickening things he did to me.\u201d<\/p>\n He realised too late what he wanted and needed to do, he said.<\/p>\n But for any other possible victims of Afeaki who had not yet been heard, he added, it was not too late.<\/p>\nJudge Bruce Davidson. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
Former Marist Brother and boarding school teacher Charles Afeaki, who sexually abused students in Auckland, Invercargill and Whanganui in the 1970s and 1980s, was sentenced again in the Auckland District Court in June 2025. Photo \/ Craig Kapitan<\/p>\n
St Paul’s College in Ponsonby, Auckland, photographed in 2012. Photo \/ Garry Brandon<\/p>\n
Charles Afeaki appeared for sentencing in the Whanganui District Court. Photo \/ Bevan Conley<\/p>\n
Brother Charles Afeaki was a teacher at various Catholic schools in the 1970s and 80s.<\/p>\n