Boy stayed at bach with convicted sex offenders

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Freed paedophile Peter Liddell lived with a second convicted child sex offender at addresses in Manurewa and the Manukau Heads. And the Weekend Herald has been told by a woman that Liddell enticed her son to stay with him unsupervised at the one-bedroom Grahams Beach bach he rents at the Manukau Heads and while there walked around naked and plied the boy with alcohol.

The woman says Liddell gave her a false name.

The woman, who does not want to be identified, says she believes Liddell was "grooming" her son in readiness to sexually abuse him.

"Things happened in both houses," she said. Rum and Coca-Cola, beer. One of the guys was trying to push marijuana on him. That was Dave, that was the other paedophile."

At the bach Liddell was insistent her son showered every day but she had warned the boy to be careful on "gut instinct" and he made sure he showered in private.

"He'd [Liddell] come out naked after he'd had a shower ... He went from the shower to the lounge, dried himself in front of [her son] and then went into his bedroom."

Liddell is considered one of New Zealand's most dangerous child sexual abusers. He victimised mainly boys for more than 20 years when he held positions of trust as a social worker at Middlemore Hospital and guidance counsellor for King's College in South Auckland.

Last week the Weekend Herald revealed concerns he had been able to slip back into two communities unsupervised because his parole period had ended after serving four years of a prison sentence of seven years and nine months.

Child, Youth and Family confirmed this week a recent investigation into Liddell had involved two boys but had not found reason to act.

The Weekend Herald understands the second man, "Dave", has convictions for child sex offences and violence.

One of New Zealand's foremost sexual offender experts says the association between the pair makes Liddell, a former British policeman, potentially even more dangerous.

John McCarthy, director of the Safe treatment programme for sex offenders, said it was unusual in New Zealand to have child sex offenders collaborating and that Liddell's situation was "enormously worrying."

Even if no offences had taken place the situation was unsafe, he said.

"Someone like Peter Liddell with his history should be making absolutely sure that there could be no chance of his reoffending or facing further accusations of offending.

"His case simply highlights the gap we now have where the responsibility for safety for someone like Peter Liddell is really just down to Peter Liddell."

Mr McCarthy said parents and caregivers of children needed to be aware of how sexual offenders groomed children and, no matter how well-meaning someone seemed to be, to have their "radar" on.

The mother of the boy said she believed her son had an extremely lucky escape. Liddell had befriended him last September after she had hired him to move some furniture.

Despite feeling something was odd, she let her son stay with Liddell at the Grahams Beach bach.

"The way Liddell put it to me was everything was innocent and fine and he was safe and there were all these activities he could do, like putting the fishing net out and cook and have barbecues and relax, so he made it very appetising to my son."

The first visit lasted about five days and he stayed with him several more times, she said.

Because she felt something was wrong she tried to check with the police about Liddell but because he had given her a false surname the check came up blank. When she got through to the correct police department and his identity was discovered "they couldn't move faster".

Her son had told her Liddell had taken other children to the bach.

A spokeswoman for Child, Youth and Family said she knew of only one notification about a sighting of Liddell and involving two boys.

It was possible there could be more notifications because they were logged under the name of the at-risk child and not the offender.

Herald Feature: Child Abuse

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