{"id":18841,"date":"2026-11-03T05:47:41","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18841"},"modified":"2026-11-03T05:47:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:47:41","slug":"teaching-council-under-scrutiny-as-teacher-charged-with-possessing-objectionable-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18841","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Council under scrutiny as teacher charged with possessing objectionable material"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A teacher at an elite New Zealand school is before the courts charged with possessing child sexual exploitation material, RNZ can reveal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The teacher was arrested on 15 October and made his first appearance in court a week later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He faces a representative charge alleging that, on 30 August, he possessed an objectionable publication, namely a video file depicting child sexual exploitation, on an external hard drive, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the publication was objectionable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The man was granted interim name suppression and did not enter a plea. He is due in court again in November.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The teacher’s school has not responded to requests for comment from RNZ, which also approached the Teaching Council for comment last Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At that stage, the teacher’s status on the teacher’s register had not been changed since his arrest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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RNZ asked whether the council had been informed of his arrest and, if it had, why his status had not changed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After RNZ’s query, the council updated the teacher’s status to say he “voluntarily agreed not to teach”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That evening, the council released a statement to RNZ from Teaching Council chair Patrick Walsh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The Teaching Council takes matters relating to learner safety seriously. When information is received that may raise concerns about a teacher’s fitness to hold a practising certificate, the Teaching Council considers that information in accordance with its statutory responsibilities and regulatory processes.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Walsh said the council maintained the online register of New Zealand Registered Teachers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The register is constantly updated as we receive information and we suggest that it is regularly reviewed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“In general, we are unable to provide information on complaints or mandatory reports that have been made to the council (including whether one has recently or previously been received or not, in relation to a specific teacher, ECE centre, school or kura). This is to ensure we act\u202fin accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and the principles of natural justice.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A teacher at an elite New Zealand school is before the courts charged with possessing child sexual exploitation material, RNZ can reveal. The teacher was arrested on 15 October and made his first appearance in court a week later. He faces a representative charge alleging that, on 30 August, he possessed an objectionable publication, namely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18843,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18841\/revisions\/18843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}