Fresh claims on girls' dorm

David Benson-Pope is said to have entered this girls' dormitory at the Tautuku camp. Picture / Otago Daily Times

Embattled Cabinet minister David Benson-Pope is facing new allegations about his teaching career, including a claim that he entered a girls' dormitory a year after his school's policy was changed to ban male teachers from such areas.

The Social Development Minister has also had to endure the Prime Minister implying that he had given Parliament a wrong answer.

Helen Clark yesterday backed away from her previously staunch defence of her minister, saying he had made an "error of judgment" in telling Parliament last year that he was not aware of any complaint of any kind during his 24 years teaching.

"But I do not consider it sufficient reason to dismiss a minister," Helen Clark said.

Despite not sacking her minister, the statement showed she disapproved of Mr Benson-Pope's parliamentary answer, which is at the heart of the controversy surrounding him.

There is also understood to be annoyance within Labour at the way Mr Benson-Pope and his office have handled the allegations.

The minister again refused the Herald's request for an interview - the third day in a row.

But Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper grabbed a few words as the minister headed out of Parliament. A tearful Mr Benson-Pope said he was appalled by the way the Opposition had treated him and said it was dishonest and mostly "incredibly dated".

Act leader Rodney Hide hit Mr Benson-Pope with a new allegation that he entered a girls' dormitory, where 14-year-old girls were undressed, on a Bayfield High School camp, at Tautuku, in 1998, the year after he was told of a parent's complaint about it, and after the school changed its policy to stop it happening.

If this latest allegation is proved the Government will not be able to use its previous defence that Mr Benson-Pope acted inside school policy at the time.

Mr Benson-Pope said he was "not aware of any further allegations".

In a fierce parliamentary session the Government struck back at National, implying they had incriminating information about deputy leader Gerry Brownlee's conduct as a teacher.

Mr Brownlee told the Herald no parents, teachers or students had laid complaints against him in regard to inappropriate behaviour while he was a teacher and he had not been disciplined in any way.

The Opposition used every opportunity to lay into Mr Benson-Pope, calling him a "pathological bully, liar and pervert", "deceitful" and "not fit to be in control of children".

Mr Hide also raised the allegation that Mr Benson-Pope slapped a girl on a thigh while she was abseiling on a school camp.

The minister said he "completely refuted the ridiculous statement".

But the person whose thigh was struck, Geana Earl, was last night standing by her accusation and her parents complained in writing at the time. Ms Earl's defence of her accusation that he slapped her brought renewed claims that Mr Benson-Pope might have misled Parliament with his answer again.

Later, the Prime Minister's office released a Bayfield High School letter to the Earls saying another teacher at the abseiling did not see the slap.

Four of the five women making the "shower-girl" allegations are happy to be named and interviewed. The incident, not part of the police inquiry last year, allegedly happened in 1997. 

Teacher won 'bullying' apology

A former Bayfield High School teacher yesterday confirmed she received a personal apology from Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope after complaining of being harassed and bullied by him during his teaching career.

Details of the complaint are contained in a New Zealand Police report released last year on the allegations of misconduct against Mr Benson-Pope while a teacher at Bayfield High School. The report was tabled in Parliament yesterday by Act MP Rodney Hide.

The former teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, was contacted in Auckland yesterday by the Otago Daily Times and said Mr Benson-Pope put her through about two years of "hell".

"He made my life a misery for quite some time."

The police report tells of how the teacher, who was at the school from 1971 to 1999, was bullied and harassed verbally and by his actions.

"In the end, I walked out of Bayfield and threatened to go to the Human Rights Commission before anything was done about it," her statement to police said.

"Then there was mediation and eventually I got an apology letter from him and it didn't happen again."

She also got a personal apology and handshake from him, she said.

He would shout at her across the staffroom, remove things from her room and make disparaging remarks about her children, all to undermine her authority, she said.

She had been told one of the reasons for his actions was because she was up for a position of responsibility, one that he was keen for his girlfriend at the time to get.

She described Mr Benson-Pope as a capable, intelligent man and did not have any ill feelings for him.

"Why he was so bloody awful I don't know."

She believed he admired her for standing up to him, something many did not do. "Maybe, if more had, he would not be in this mess today." 
 
Timeline of troubling allegations

* May 12, 2005: Act's Rodney Hide and National MP Judith Collins ask Mr Benson-Pope in Parliament whether he ever tied boys' hands together and jammed tennis balls in their mouths, and whether he once smacked a boy with the back of his hand and made the pupil's nose bleed.

Mr Benson-Pope says: "I have not been guilty of, or involved in, any inappropriate behaviour in my 24 years as a secondary school teacher. Nor am I aware of any complaint of any kind."

* May 17: Mr Benson-Pope is stood down from his portfolios while an inquiry is held.

* June 7: Mr Benson-Pope is reinstated to the Cabinet after Speaker Margaret Wilson finds there is no issue of privilege to consider. He does not get the education role back.

* Nov 23:The police announce their investigation found a prima facie case but decide not to prosecute.

* Dec 5: The police report finds nine witnesses remember the tennis ball incident, 15 say they cannot remember it and three say it never happened.

* Dec 6: Mr Benson-Pope softens his May denial, saying: "I'm pleased to confirm I am one of the 19 people who either do not recall these alleged events or do not believe they happened."

* Dec 13: Mr Benson-Pope admits giving an incorrect answer to Parliament when he said he had not talked to Helen Clark about assault allegations. He says he misunderstood the question.

* Feb 25: Investigate magazine's website prints allegations that Mr Benson-Pope entered a girl's shower block and hit a girl with a ruler. Mr Benson-Pope says the article is "a nonsense".

* Feb 28: Former Bayfield High School principal Bruce Leadbetter says he had talked to Mr Benson-Pope about the shower complaints. Mr Benson-Pope says he had no recollection of a letter of complaint but acknowledges he spoke to the principal at the time.

- NZPA

What do you think?
* Did David Benson-Pope do anything wrong at the school camp?
* Did he mislead Parliament and the public about what happened?
* Should he resign as a cabinet minister?

Use the link below to send your comments, for possible publication tomorrow in the Herald and on nzherald.co.nz