Former golf pro guilty of raping girl pupils in 1980s

A former golf professional at Titirangi Golf Club - currently serving six years for sex offences against junior golfers - has been found guilty of raping two girls a quarter of a century ago.

The offences happened when Michael Joseph O'Leary, now 44, was the coach at the Lansdowne golf course in Masterton.

One of the complainants was 8 at the time and the other 12.

Some of the offending happened in a bush area of the course and in the golf pro shop.

A High Court jury in Auckland yesterday found O'Leary guilty on two charges of rape, one of attempted rape, seven of indecent assault and two of inducing an indecent act.

Justice Patricia Courtney will sentence him on July 15.

The jury found him not guilty on two charges of indecent assault.

In June last year, O'Leary was jailed for six years after admitting in the Auckland District Court that he had indecently assaulted a young female relative in the 1980s.

He also pleaded guilty to eight indecent assault charges involving three boys aged 12, 13, and 14, who were junior golfers at the Titirangi club.

He was said to have groomed the boys, giving them alcohol and showing them pornographic videos.

The High Court jury was not told of his previous sex convictions. The two women came forward after publicity about O'Leary's sentencing last year.

Outside the court, the officer in charge of the case, Detective Roger Small, said: "He has been doing this for at least 23 years that we know of.

"At one stage he moved to Titirangi and switched from girls to boys.

"There are some huge gaps between these various offences where we believe it is highly likely that there are other victims."

Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield told the jury that there was no evidence to corroborate the accounts of the complainants, both now in their 30s, and O'Leary firmly denied their allegations.

But prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch said: "If this was made up by the complainants, then their tears were all a sham."

He said the women had never met before the trial.