Editorial: How did rapist get access to pupils?

You have to wonder how someone with a history of rape and sexual violation could end up in a position where he was able to sexually assault eight young children.

Mathew Everson, 37, was sentenced in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday to preventive detention for indecent acts on eight primary and intermediate-aged girls while they were attending a school camp. Everson worked at the place where the camp was being held.

The judge told the court Everson had previous convictions for rape, sexual violation and performing an indecent act and had served prison sentences for each. Preventive detention had also previously been considered as a sentence.

There certainly appears to be a loophole in the system somewhere if people can go through the justice system, come out the other side posing a risk to society, and get a job with access to society's most vulnerable.

The principal of the victims' school said the camp, which we cannot name, had not followed procedures to keep the children safe, but blamed only Everson for what the girls had been through.

Justice Graham Lang said the school camp was not to blame as its staff were unaware of Everson's past.

But institutions which deal with young children should have and follow certain standards which require knowledge of employees' backgrounds, including any criminal history.

If the camp is not to blame, then what about a system which fails to keep track of such predators once they're released back into society.

Look at the cost - "They felt uncomfortable, frightened, dirty and scared that you would come back to the camp later and do worse... You have harmed us in a way they will never forget," the principal said in a victim impact statement.

Everson has been put away for what could be a very long time, and rightly so.

But how long will his victims live with the trauma of what he did?