One of Booth's victims says his teacher abused him over the course of several years. Photo / Supplied
One of Booth's victims says his teacher abused him over the course of several years. Photo / Supplied
"Rot in hell Mr Booth" a woman yelled at the former teacher who abused her brother Charlie as he was sentenced to seven years prison today.
James Booth - or Jim as he was known to his students - pleaded guilty to a raft of charges against four young boys who were around the age of 12 at the time the offending occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was only caught when Charlie, one of his now adult victims, tricked him into admitting the offending on the phone.
In the Palmerston North District Court today, Judge Lance Rowe said Booth's victims felt a deep sense of guilt and shame.
"Your fourth victim has eloquently and bravely described his experience to the court. And I thank him for the courage he has shown," Rowe said.
"Another victim said that your conduct undermined his mana in a deep and profound way."
In his sentencing Rowe said that laws prior to 2005 were somewhat more lenient on sexual abuse crimes, and because the abuse happened prior to that date he had to be sentenced according to the laws at the time.
He noted that Booth had pleaded guilty, negating the need for a trial, seemed genuinely remorseful, was old and had a range of age-related issues including arthritis which meant he had to use crutches to get around.
"There is no doubt that your health concerns make serving a sentence more difficult than someone in good health."
Booth's modus operandi was to take kids out to a camp a school used under the pretence of teaching them to fish and hunt.
He took a particular liking to Charlie, not his real name, and would take him out to the camp nearly every weekend for several years where he groomed the boy to perform oral sex on him.
Today, Charlie watched by video link from Australia as his abuser hobbled to the dock on crutches.
He read his victim impact statement while his father and sister sat in the public gallery.
"He did the worst thing an adult could do. He took my childhood and most of my adult life," he told the court.
"I think of someone doing this to my daughter, I tell you I would be probably going to jail for what I'd do them."
Booth pleaded guilty to a raft of indecency charges in the Levin District Court in July. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
"No child should ever have to endure the pain and suffering I have had to for life, the detrimental impacts of his actions have had major consequences on me. I had dreams and plans and they were taken from me."
Booth's lawyer Peter Foster told the court that he acknowledged his behaviour was appalling.
"He makes no excuses and says that he's genuinely remorseful," Foster said.
"He describes the breach of trust as indefensible in betraying the trust of the boys and of their parents."
Foster said that prison would not be easy for Booth, who is now 80 years old, as he has a number of age-related health issues.
"He will be going to prison…and when he leaves today he will be going out the front door so he can use the two lifts.
"Prison is going to be harder for him at his age than younger man. It's going to form a significant part of the remainder of his life."
Impact
Charlie told Open Justice earlier this year that Booth destroyed his innocence, and simultaneously provided him the financial means to obliterate what was left of it.
"I'm sickened by the fact that Jim took away my freedom, he took away my liberty, he took away my innocence, he took away my youth and then on the back of that he afforded me everything I needed to self-destruct in my early years," Charlie said.
He smoked his first joint at 13, then started smoking meth a few years later. Whenever he needed money, Booth was always there.
"We had these special lotto numbers that were a mix of his birthday, mine and some other numbers. And I'd get these envelopes in the mail with 20 bucks, or sometimes it would be a thousand from the 'winnings'.
James Booth outside Levin District Court this afternoon. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
"As a young kid, getting a thousand dollars in your back pocket was f***ing nice … I could do whatever I wanted."
Charlie said that it was obvious to him now that Booth was buying his loyalty and his silence for what had happened to him at the camp for years.
"Because I knew that Jim was financially viable and I was a fiend. I would ask and he would provide.
"There was never ever a time that he suggested I would have to pay him back."
Ultimately Charlie's life spiralled out of control and his dad helped move him to Australia where he could start afresh.
But Booth's influence even extended across the ditch with letters and "Lotto" money coming in the mail and even a visit from Booth himself when he first moved over.
The sting
It was in Australia that Charlie, now in his thirties, came clean to his wife about what had happened to him as a child.
She all but marched him down to the nearest police station where detectives there interviewed him and set up a recorder if Charlie wanted to call Booth and see if he could lure him into confessing.
Up until that point they'd maintained intermittent contact, mainly through letters and with an ever-present stream of "lotto winnings" and other envelopes filled with money.
"Jim, why did you do those things to me? That's the question I need to ask you," Charlie recalls asking Booth when he picked up the phone.
James Booth was a teacher at a school in Manawatu for over three decades. Photo / Supplied
Three of the four complainants came forward after Charlie's sting and told police of a night in 1981 when Booth took four of his 13-year-old male students to the camp for a weekend trip.
According to the summary of facts provided to the court he plied them with alcohol and then while they were asleep he took one of them from his bed, undressed him, kissed him and forced oral sex on him.
After he'd finished with the first boy he went back into the bunk room where the others were sleeping and uplifted a second boy, held him close while he resisted and then let him return to his bed when he began crying.
At a different school camp he went to a boy's bed while he slept and started rubbing his chest, stopping when the boy told him to.
The school where Booth taught for most of his career has received permanent name suppression. Photo / Supplied
The Crown argues this was a prelude and an escalation to what happened to Charlie when Booth began grooming him in 1997 when he was just 12 years old.
The offending against Charlie was more severe and more regular with Booth frequently forcing oral sex upon him and on two occasions anally raping him.
The school where Booth taught has been granted name suppression by the courts and his four victims all have automatic and permanent name suppression.
However, Booth himself lost that privilege earlier this year despite being almost synonymous with the primary school he taught at in Manawatu for nearly three decades with former students describing him as "legend" and a "big softie".
The reaction
After Open Justice published Charlie's story it was shared on multiple Facebook groups dedicated to former students of the school where Booth taught.
"I never understood why no one thought it was weird that he took boys 'under his wing' and took them away on weekends etc. even back then I thought it was a little weird," one person commented.
"He took me up to the camp with another kid that same year as this victim," another person said, "I guess I was one of the lucky ones that he didn't act on."
"I can see how his intimidating demeanour successfully kept any victims quiet. Very sad to hear," another said.
More people said it was scary and sad to think it was happening right under the nose of the parents and the other staff at the school.
As for Charlie he said today the sentence was more than a little disappointing.
"I'm actually disgusted at the fact that a man who has caused so much trauma is only getting sentenced to seven years and that he may be afforded freedom again one day."
Earlier this year, Booth appeared in Palmerston North District Court and pleaded not guilty to eight counts of indecency with a boy between 12 and 16; and nine charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection.
However, he changed his plea in July and pleaded guilty to all 21 charges.
