Craig O'Dwyer's 2020 complaint about a proposition by Pinky Green in 1982 was unmentioned in the 2022 review of an investigation into the former Tauranga Boys' College teacher. Photo / Supplied
Craig O'Dwyer's 2020 complaint about a proposition by Pinky Green in 1982 was unmentioned in the 2022 review of an investigation into the former Tauranga Boys' College teacher. Photo / Supplied
When Craig O'Dwyer's teacher asked him if he wanted some weekend work involving the pair beating each other and discussing the effects for an Amnesty International study, the 15-year-old politely declined.
He's the latest former Tauranga Boys' College student to come forward with allegations against the late English teacher Pinky Green, who resigned in 1988 after being investigated for sexually propositioning four students.
Since then at least five complainants have come forward with similar stories to that of Glenn Marshall, who raised the alarm in 1988 when Green asked the then 17-year-old to tie him naked to a chair and cane him.
But in a letter to Marshall on Thursday, board of trustees chairwoman Nikki Iuli said police would not investigate. However, former students had a right to proceed with a civil action against the school, she said.
Police also sent Marshall a letter, saying they would not investigate because Green was dead.
The late Pinky Green's sexual propositions of former Tauranga Boys' College students will not be investigated by police or the school board of trustees. Photo / NZME
O'Dwyer, 56, recalled how Green lured him to his office adjoining the school library one Saturday morning in 1982 with an offer of weekend week.
"I remember it quite clearly ... going in there and he was sitting on the other side of the desk," O'Dwyer said.
"He then started recounting how he was working with Amnesty International on a programme of studying the effects of beatings and suggested I would like to get involved.
"I had no idea what he was meaning so asked what it was about. He said it works like this: 'You either beat me or I beat you and we discuss how it feels and affects us and write up a report about it which I will put through in the programme with Amnesty International.
"I replied in complete naivety that I didn't think it was work that I was interested in. He said he was sorry about that and 'Here have $5 for your time' and 'if you change your mind let me know'.
"I went home completely unaware of what had really gone on."
It wasn't until a few years after O'Dwyer left school that he realised how sinister the offer was and that the Amnesty International study probably never existed.
So O'Dwyer returned to the school in 1986 with the intention of reporting Green to then principal Graham Young.
Neither Young nor Pinky Green - who O'Dwyer thought he would confront - was available and he left without making known his complaint.
English teacher Pinky Green was a teacher at Tauranga Boys' College from 1960 to 1988, when he retired early due to "ill-health". Photo / Andrew Warner
But the incident played on his mind, despite relocating to England 30 years ago, and during a visit to New Zealand in March 2020 he met with a senior teacher to report it.
The teacher responded by offering to take him on a tour of the school.
At the end O'Dwyer raised Green's name again. Green was still alive then, having died only in January this year.
"He then looked kind of awkward and suggested going into the interview room to chat about it.
"We sat down. I told him what I had experienced and asked him what had happened to [Green]."
The teacher explained there had been accusations that Green enjoyed beating the boys and also being beaten himself by them, but that "nothing had come of it", O'Dwyer said.
"He was kind of vague about it. He didn't offer to chase it up - we just hand-shook again and I left."
In her letter to Marshal this week, Iuli said police had told the board that "propositioning" is not a crime and they would not investigate.
"We absolutely accept that you and others have been deeply hurt and affected to varying degrees by your interactions with Mr P. Green," she wrote.
These were recent revelations to the current board, she said. When asked by Open Justice whether the senior teacher reported O'Dwyer's complaint to the board in 2020 Iuli supplied a separate statement that did not address the question.
Glenn Marshall is still calling for an independent investigation by the Ministry of Education into the behaviour of former teacher Pinky Green at Tauranga Boys' College. Photo / Warren Buckland
In her letter to Marshall, she said the board was firm in its view the matter was not "swept under the carpet" in 1988 as he claimed, and it was confident it had addressed his initial concern entirely and with integrity.
Iuli did not respond to questions about why a complaint about a sexual proposition by Green made 18 months before Marshall came forward was not included in the 2022 review.
"Regarding further legal or criminal action, the police have informed the board that 'propositioning' was not and is not a criminal offence and have declined this week, as they did in 1988, to undertake a criminal investigation," Iuli wrote to Marshall.
"Additionally, most communications received this week, from a small number of former students, while relating similar accounts as yours, sought anonymity and did not consent to being referred to the police or further inquiry."
She said Marshall and other former students had the right to proceed with civil action against the school but noted the college had "no funding allocated for compensation and any funds used in this manner would be diverted from current school activities and current students".
Marshall said it was never about money for him but instead about ensuring the extent of Green's activities with students was uncovered and whether he could have been stopped sooner.
Police said they took any claim of sexual assault extremely seriously – particularly incidents involving young people.
"We would strongly encourage anyone who has been harmed in this way to report it to police."
