Catholic brother pleads guilty to more sex assaults

A former Catholic brother already serving a jail term yesterday pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court to eight charges of indecently assaulting boys while he was a teacher in Feilding.

John Louis Stevenson, 67, pleaded guilty to all charges, which included inducing a boy aged between 12 and 16 years to do an indecent act.

The offending occurred between 1979 and 1982 when the three complainants were aged 14, 15 and 16. They were all students at Hato Paora College.

Stevenson's lawyer, Mike Antunovic, said his client had grossly abused his position of trust.

In December, Stevenson was jailed for three and a half years. He was ashamed of and extremely remorseful for what he had done, Mr Antunovic said.

Judge Davidson said this month at an indictment hearing he had indicated Stevenson would face a further 18 months in jail for these offences. At that time he had not read the victim-impact statements, but after reading them he said yesterday they did not alter the sentence he had indicated earlier.

The statements showed the victims had been severely affected by the offending. One had been a complainant in Stevenson's previous charges.

The aggravating features were self-evident, Judge Davidson said.

There had been a gross breach of trust, there were three complainants and the offending was repeated and sustained, he said.

Mitigating features were Stevenson's guilty pleas, a lack of previous convictions and the unlikelihood he would ever reoffend, Judge Davidson said.

On each count he convicted and sentenced Stevenson to 18 months' imprisonment concurrently, but cumulative on the existing three-and-a-half-year sentence.

- NZPA