'Role model' stole boys' innocence

A Salvation Army youth worker has been told he must serve at least four years of a six-year sentence for sex offences against five boys he met through the church.

Jonathan Tremain, 22, a cabin crew trainer, previously pleaded guilty to 14 charges including oral sex, indecent assault and inducing indecent acts with boys aged eight to 13 over a 12-month period.

Tremain met his victims as one of the supervisors of the Salvation Army's Trailblazer programme for younger children in Henderson.

Passing sentence in the Auckland District Court yesterday Judge Simon Lockhart, QC, said the crimes were premeditated to the extent that Tremain made himself available to babysit some of the boys.

Prosecutor Simone Tune said the impact on the boys was incalculable.

One youth said in a victim impact report that Tremain had taken away his innocence, introducing him to a homosexual world he never wanted to be part of. But he wasn't old enough to reject Tremain's advances and tell someone about it.

Others said they hated Tremain for what he had done and made them do. One boy had suicidal thoughts.

A parent said in a victim statement that Tremain was considered a role model.

Defence lawyer Anthony Rogers told the court Tremain did not shrink from the appalling nature of what he had done, the gross breach of trust and the repeated nature of his offences.