Businessman admits sex offences against 13 boys

A businessman has admitted sexually abusing schoolboys lured with video games and groomed using alcohol and junk food, according to police.

Brian Edward Avent, 40, yesterday pleaded guilty to 44 representative charges of sexual offending against 13 boys aged between 9 and 16 at the time of the abuse, between March 2000 and March 2005.

Avent pleaded not guilty to five charges and will appear in the High Court at Auckland again next year.

In a summary of facts given to the district court in September, police said Avent was a paedophile who groomed his victims by first offering them access to computer games and supplying them with junk food.

He met his victims at church and through his West Auckland computer business, police said.

Avent introduced the young boys to low-strength alcohol then moved on to straight vodka.

He pleaded guilty yesterday to supplying four of the boys, including a 12-year-old, with cannabis.

Police said he groomed four of the boys at the same time in 2000, introducing them to pornographic material on a large screen during sleepovers in his basement bedroom.

He masturbated himself and encouraged them to do it as well.

"As the years passed and he had several young teenage boys that he was regularly sexually abusing, he started to surround himself with more young teenage boys."

Family of some of the victims were in court to hear Avent plead guilty. He was remanded in custody but as security staff spent time trying to unlock a door to the cells, Avent stood and glared at the family members.

When interviewed by police, Avent said he was a paedophile.

He claimed the abuse was to "pleasure the boys, not himself" and described what he did as an "art".

Avent will be sentenced in March.