Principal found guilty of sex abuse

A Manawatu secondary principal has been found guilty of abusing boys at an Auckland school in the early 1990s. Photo / Greg Bowker

A suspended Manawatu secondary school principal has been found guilty of abusing boys at an Auckland school in the early 1990s.

Suppression orders against naming Elvis Dobson Shepherd were lifted in the High Court at Palmerston North last night when a jury delivered its verdict after deliberating for less than five hours.

Shepherd, 49, who had denied four offences, was suspended as principal of Hato Paora College, a Maori boys' secondary school near Feilding, after his arrest in November 2007.

The Manawatu Standard reported the sexual activity between Shepherd and two teenage boys happened while he was teaching and living at Hato Petera College, a Maori Catholic boarding school on Auckland's North Shore.

Shepherd had been a student at the school before returning to teach te reo Maori in an experimental total immersion unit in 1989.

The first sexual encounter occurred in March 1990 after an annual gala day and disco, when Shepherd offered a drunk 16-year-old boy a bed for the night.

While the boy was sleeping Shepherd began performing oral sex on the boy and did another indecent act.

In 1994 Shepherd had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy who had gone to see him for help with te reo.

The victims came forward more than 10 years after the events.

Defence lawyer Paul Mabey, QC, said it was too early to say if an appeal would be lodged.

Justice Robert Dobson remanded Shepherd in custody for sentence in September.

- NZPA