School at centre of alleged sex scandal has name kept secret

File photo / NZ Herald

An Auckland primary school at the centre of an alleged sex scandal has had its name permanently suppressed.

One of the school's teachers -- a man in his 60s -- was this week acquitted of 25 indecent assault charges after a trial in the High Court at Auckland.

He had been accused of committing acts against students between the ages of 6 and 8, but after more than two days of deliberating, the jury rejected the Crown's case.

This afternoon, the school's lawyer Christine Chilwell applied for suppression of the school's name to protect the eight complainants who still attended it.

She said the "safe and nurturing environment would be disturbed" if the school was the subject of media scrutiny.

Since the not guilty verdicts were given, tensions had been running high in the parent community, Ms Chilwell said, and pressure put on the board of trustees meant they would not pursue suppression for the teacher concerned.

Justice Mary Peters granted the application but said in the absence of any such argument for the teacher, his name suppression would lapse tomorrow.

However, the defendant cannot be named because doing so would identify the school.

At trial, defence lawyer Richard Earwaker said his client -- a grandfather with more than 40 years' teaching experience and the recipient of a prestigious award -- may have been unwise with his physical contact with students, but there was nothing indecent about it.

"But being unwise or stupid doesn't make you a criminal," Mr Earwaker said.

He warned the jury not to assume the number of charges made the man guilty and suggested he had been the victim of schoolyard gossip among both students and their parents.