Former Dunedin teacher jailed for sexually abusing pupils denied parole

David Bond will be locked up until at least June next year, the Parole Board has decided. Photo / Rob Kidd

A former Dunedin teacher who sexually abused pupils for more than a decade has been declined parole so he can undergo treatment.

David Russell Bond, 71, was jailed for 25 months in June after pleading guilty to 20 indecent assaults against seven pupils from when he taught at Otago Boys’ High School between 2001 and 2011.

It was the former maths teacher’s first term of imprisonment but he had twice served sentences of home detention for historic sex offences that emerged after his retirement.

He appeared before the Parole Board last month after being transferred to Rolleston Prison.

Panel convener Martha Coleman said Bond moved there to undertake the eight-week Short Intervention Programme for Child Sex Offenders, which was scheduled to start in February next year.

Until that had been completed, he could not be released, she said.

The board heard Bond already had a plan for when he was freed, although the location of his intended accommodation was redacted in documents released to the Otago Daily Times.

“He has a network of family and friends that he keeps in touch with,” said Coleman.

At the sentencing, Crown prosecutor Sarah McKenzie said Bond deliberately put himself into positions where he had direct access to the boys and she stressed the offending continued despite complaints to the school and “various internal investigations”.

Much of the teacher’s lewd behaviour took place in the classroom where he would force his groin against pupils while pretending to check their work.

In 2010, Bond entered a computer class being supervised by two other teachers and approached a pupil from the rear, put his chin on the boy’s shoulder and pressed his body against him, only leaving when one of the staff members shouted at him.

In 2002 or 2003, the court heard, he followed a 16-year-old into the school gym, where he congratulated him on winning a sporting event, before pawing at the victim’s groin.

Counsel Anne Stevens KC told the court Bond had been “isolated and lonely” and presented no future risk to children.

Coleman requested a psychological report to be prepared once Bond had finished his therapy behind bars. It would assess his level of risk and the potential need for further treatment.

He will see the Parole Board again in June.