Father Michael O'Donnell pleaded guilty at the Palmerston North District Court today. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
Father Michael O'Donnell pleaded guilty at the Palmerston North District Court today. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
WARNING: This article discusses sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
One of Father Michael O’Donnell’s five victims feigned having appendicitis so the priest would stop molesting him.
But even after he had had a perfectly healthy organ removed, O’Donnell touched him on the way home from his surgery and then again as he lay in a recovery bed unable to get away.
Today in the Palmerston North District Court, O’Donnell pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawful sexual connection of a male between 12 and 16 years old, and 13 charges of indecent assault. The charges are representative, which means that a single charge indicates multiple offences of the same type were committed in similar circumstances.
John Louis Stevenson, known as Brother Bernard, was jailed for three and a half years in 2005 for sexually assaulting four boys aged between 14 and 16 from 1976 to 1981.
Father Michael O'Donnell. Photo / Supplied
The same year Brother Andrew Cody was jailed for two and a half years when he was 67 for abusing sick and vulnerable boys in his care at the college between 1981 and 1984.
Then, in 2010 Elvis Dobson Shepherd, 49, was jailed for eight years for sexually abusing students at Hato Petera College - another Catholic school for Māori boys - in Northcote in the early 1990s but the abuse did not come to light until 2007 when he was principal of Hato Pāora.
O’Donnell’s primary victim gave a lengthy statement to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in September 2021, which triggered a formal police complaint, although the priest didn’t first appear in court until July 2023.
He told NZME that after years of waiting it was a huge relief for O’Donnell to finally admit the charges.
One of O'Donnell's victims pictured in the late 1980s at Hato Pāora College. Photo / Supplied
“I just want to burst into 1000 tears,” the man, who is now in his 50s, told NZME.
“I don’t think anyone really appreciates what it takes to get a historical case like this over the line.”
The man said he spent years feeling like he was the only victim, but after he told his story he learnt that four others had also come forward.
“I initially felt quite lonely in this whole space because it felt like I was the only one pushing this uphill,” he said.
“After all these years, if I’d known there were other victims I would have the guts to come forward earlier.
“It must have had a huge impact on their lives as well.”
Elvis Dobson Shepherd, former Principal of Hato Pāora College. Photo / Ross Setford
Tuck shop
According to the summary of facts, O’Donnell worked at the school nearly three decades ago in a number of positions that gave him access to young students.
But the primary vehicle by which O’Donnell groomed his victims was by way of the school tuck shop.
The first complainant was just 13 years old and worked at the shop between 1987 and 1988 with O’Donnell. The priest started his grooming of the boy by brushing himself up against him, before his behaviour escalated to pinning the boy between his legs, forcing their groins to touch, kissing him and even rubbing himself against the victim’s stomach.
This type of touching would happen often while the boy was working in the tuck shop with him and O’Donnell grew bolder, unzipping his pants to expose and rub himself against the victim while he held him close until he ejaculated.
The constant abuse caused his victim to feign appendicitis to get away from him and he was admitted to hospital for surgery.
However, O’Donnell picked him up from the hospital and molested him in the car on the way back to the school.
Then, while the victim was in the school infirmary recovering from a surgery he hadn’t needed, O’Donnell visited him and touched him under the bed covers as well kissing him.
O’Donnell had his own bedroom and office at the school and often called his victim to him, where he would make him sit on his knee, or on the desk where the priest would undo his pants and expose himself.
The summary of facts states that the victim was called into O’Donnell’s bedroom “often” and on multiple occasions he would touch the now 14-year-old boy.
There is one sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection charge against O’Donnell where he had his penis exposed and his victim on his knee when another student entered the room. He then pulled his victim on to his lap causing him to penetrate the boy through his underwear, causing him an injury in the process.
O’Donnell’s second complainant, another 14-year-old boy, attended the same school from 1988 to 1990 and also worked in the tuck shop where O’Donnell began his abuse by seemingly innocently rubbing himself against the boy.
Father Michael O'Donnell pictured in the early 1980s. Photo / Supplied
The priest then escalated to hugging, grabbing, and rubbing himself against the second victim to brushing his hands against his genitals, before the boy told him to stop and his duties at the tuck shop were ceased.
The third victim attended the school between 1986 and 1987 and was having a difficult time, the summary of facts notes. O’Donnell invited him to his room to talk, which escalated into the priest touching the boy under his clothing, spooning him on a bed, or rubbing himself against the boy’s back.
The priest would also touch the boy’s genitals and the abuse only stopped once his victim was expelled from the school.
A fourth victim told police how O’Donnell befriended him and let him use his rooms to study between 1986 and 1989 and would pull him close, rub his hands over his body, and touch his genitals.
A fifth victim also worked at the tuck shop in 1988 where O’Donnell’s other victims had helped out. On one occasion O’Donnell pulled the boy on to his lap where he could feel O’Donnell had an erection.
‘We deeply regret any hurt or harm’
Hato Pāora College was founded by the Society of Mary, a Catholic religious congregation that in New Zealand focuses its ministry on youth and education.
In a statement sent to NZME the society said it was aware that one of its members had entered guilty pleas to criminal charges.
The statement said that the police first investigated a complaint in the late 1980s but never laid charges. Still, O’Donnell was removed from his post, undertook a psychological assessment, participated in a personal assistance programme and later returned to teaching in a non-residential school.
“In late 2021, the society was advised that the complainant was asking police to reopen the case. In line with church protocol, inquiry processes were halted when the police advised a new investigation was under way. Fr O’Donnell was removed from ministry in December 2021,” the statement reads.
“Another complainant contacted the society in the 2000s stating that he had been abused by Fr O’Donnell at the same place in the late 1980s. An independent investigation commissioned by the society recommended assistance be offered to the complainant and it was accepted.
“We deeply regret any hurt or harm caused by a member of the Society of Mary.”
O’Donnell will appear for sentencing in April.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
