The clean slate law was primarily designed for those who have committed lesser crimes but a High Court judge has concealed the history of a paedophile in a landmark court case. A former teacher convicted of repeated sexual offending against an 11-year-old boy has been granted a clean slate so he can work in aged care, despite objections by those in the industry and another judge. It is the first case of its kind to reach New Zealand’s High Court, with those convicted of sexual offences ordinarily exempt from the law designed for people who have committed lesser crimes. The Kiwi man, who cannot be named, applied to conceal his historical offending under the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004 so he could embark on a new career in aged care. But his request was initially declined by Judge Lawrence Hinton in the District Court, who said it was for aged care providers – not the courts – to make employment decisions. “I believe the chosen employers here must be able to choose for themselves … I have concluded that an awareness of [the man’s] previous convictions is appropriate in the public interest,” he said. However, on appeal to the High Court, the man was granted his clean slate. “This appears to be the first case of its type to reach the High Court,” Justice Mathew Downs, who heard the appeal, said in his judgment released to the Herald this week. The man’s offending occurred when he befriended an 11-year-old at a children’s camp before indecently assaulting the boy during the 1980s. A decade later the offender confessed to his flatmate, who told her mum. When she learnt the man was a teacher in the late 1990s she informed police. The man was charged and promptly pleaded guilty before being given a suspended sentence of imprisonment and ordered to a term of community work instead. Police overseas had also investigated the man and searched his home after a complaint. The police report referred to him possessing “a large quantity of information pertaining to paedophilia”. The man’s conviction resulted in a lifetime ban from teaching children, but he later lectured adults in New Zealand and overseas. A spokesperson for the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, which is responsible for the register of teachers, said if a person’s conviction was a specified offence under the Vulnerable Children Act it would still be disclosed in a police vet even if it was clean slated.
