There have been a number of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in New Zealand, linked to Catholic schools. In 2000 the church acknowledged and apologised for the abuse of children by clergy, putting in place protocols and setting up a national office to handle abuse complaints.
Specific cases
The first recorded case was in 1900. Allegations of cruelty toward children residing at the Stoke Industrial School instigated a Royal Commission and the eventual prosecution of two Marist Brothers. Edouard Forrier was charged with five counts of common assault. They were also charged with five counts of indecent assault of which they were acquitted. The alleged incidents occurred between September 5, 1893 and June 1, 1897. Marist Brother Claudius Pettit, real name Malcolm Thomas Petit, was convicted of child-sex abuse of a boy at a Wellington school in the 1990s. Father Thomas "Tom" Laffey admitted in 2003 that he had sexually assaulted Mike Phillips in the mid 1960s, when Phillips was a 13-year-old altar boy at St Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington. Laffey was ordained in 1957 and during his priesthood, he served across New Zealand and also in Fiji. In 2018 the Society of Mary admitted that Father Francis Durning sexually abused children. Durning taught in Catholic institutions from the 1940s through to the late 1980s, among others at:
In 1999, Christchurch Catholic priest Patrick Thwaites was charged with assaulting two young boys in 1984 and 1991. Father Thwaites was soon convicted and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Marist Father Alan Woodcock abused children at St John's College in Hastings, St Patrick's College in Upper Hutt, Highden in the Manawatu and Futuna in Wellington. After he left the Marist priesthood and left New Zealand to live in England, he was extradited back to New Zealand and was convicted in 2004 of 21 sex offences committed between 1978 and 1987. The abuse continued despite the knowledge of Father Michael Curtain and Father Fred Bliss. Tracking him down abroad was done with the assistance of the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth. In the late 1980s, he took up residence in England, where he was arrested in 2002. Woodcock received a 21 year prison sentence. In June 2020, Kevin Healy, a fomer Marist brother, was convicted of four charges of indecency between a man and boys aged 12 and 13, and one of indecency with a girl aged under 12. John Louis Stevenson and Brother Andrew Cody of the Hato Paora Māori Boys school in Feilding were convicted of sexual offenses and jailed. In 2011 a staff member of St Bede's College, Christchurch admitted to being a sex offender before he was employed at that college, but was allowed to remain as a teacher. The same year, Brother Bede Hampton was jailed for sex abuse committed over a longtime period at a Catholic school. In 2018, abuse victim advocates called for the resignation of the school's rector for continuing the staff member's employment. In 2017 and 2018, the issue was raised of Magnus Murray, a Catholic priest, who taught at St Paul's College, Dunedin, until 1972 and was later convicted of child sexual abuse. Allegations were also made against former Christian Brothers Junior School teacher, Desmond Fay. Michael Dooley, Bishop of Dunedin, acknowledged the offences of Murray and Fay and apologised for the "suffering endured by victims and their families". Murray was laicised in 2019. In 2018, the Otago Daily Times noted that nine Marist brothers had been convicted of crimes against boys. These were Br Charles Afeaki, Br Kenneth Camden, Br Sione Losalu, Br Bryan McKay, Br Andrew Cody, Br Bernard Stevenson, Br Bede Hampton, Br Patrick Bignell and Br Claudius Pettit. Another, Br Aiden Benefield, of Napier, was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2007.
Marylands School
, which was operated by the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, a Catholic religious order in Christchurch, was the centre of a number of sex abuse cases. By 2006, the Australasian branch of the St John of God order had paid out $5.1 million to survivors who had been sexually abused at the school. A nonprofit trust, the Survivors of Sex Abuse Trust, worked with many of the victims. Over 120 complaints were made in regard to sexual and physical abuse alleged to have occurred at the school. Many of the offences were committed in the 1970s.
Transfer of accused clergy to Fiji
On July 13, 2020, New Zealand's 1 News revealed that some of the 1,300 alleged cases of child-abuse by Catholic personnel in the nation of Fiji involved clergy from New Zealand. The transfer of these persons to Fiji is a subject of the New Zealand Royal Commission investigation of child abuse in state and faith-based institutions in New Zealand. 1 News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver, who was in Fiji just before the national lockdown, spoke with some of the victims of the alleged abuse. Dr Murray Heasley from the Network of Survivors in Faith Based Institution also stated to 1 News that Fiji was common place for the New Zealand Catholic Church to transfer accused Catholic clergy.
