Police have given former Wanganui mayor Michael Laws a formal warning after he was accused of smacking his child.

An Auckland school failed to act on concerns raised by two teenage students who felt unsafe around their teacher - six years before he was arrested for sexually grooming one of them and other underage girls.

Evidence from a cell phone has been used for the first time to convict a person of possession and making a copy of objectionable material.

The Government is falling short of key targets it set itself for reducing child abuse and rheumatic fever.

Ever since the first Jimmy Savile revelation, dozens of elderly former television, radio and political celebrities have been accused of long past sexual offences.

Pope Francis has said 2 per cent of the Roman Catholic clergy worldwide, the equivalent of 8000 members, are paedophiles.

Derryn Hinch wants to be able to turn on his mobile phone and see the names of all sex offenders in the neighbourhood.

Fears over an establishment cover-up of an alleged Westminster paedophile ring deepened as it emerged that lost "explosive" evidence was also handed to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A paedophile scandal engulfing Westminster deepened after the British Home Office confessed to losing or destroying 114 "potentially relevant" files.

Over a dozen NZ women have told Maggie Barry they were also indecently assaulted by Rolf Harris - and one is considering an official complaint to police after years of silence.

Australia's Anglican priests will be free to report serious crimes revealed to them during confessions, ending a church law that has its roots in the 12th century.

Further inquiries about Rolf Harris' potential offending in NZ are being carried out by police here, as The Wiggles confirmed they'd deleted him from a video.

When Rolf Harris visited NZ in 1986 to campaign against child abuse, he told the Herald he wanted to 'repay his carefree childhood to help kids who haven't had one'.

Rolf Harris: From CBE, MBE and Queen's portraitist to adulterer, abuser and paedophile. Of all the celebrity historic sex abuse cases, why did Harris' shock the most?

The widening web of allegations that followed the establishment of Australia's royal commission into the handling of child sex abuse has entangled a bishop.

The mother of an eight month old Hamilton boy who died following head injuries received at home has released a statement.

New Zealand is a destination country for foreign men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, a US State Department report has claimed.

A man accused of assaulting an 8-month-old baby who has since died has been charged with the infant's murder.

Editorial: The most contentious idea involves changing the burden of proof so it lies with the perpetrators of child abuse and domestic violence, not the victims.

A man accused of assaulting an 8-month-old baby who has since died will reappear in court later this week.

A baby boy in Hamilton who was airlifted to Starship Children's hospital with critical injuries on Sunday has died.

A man accused of assaulting an 8-month-old baby has been remanded in custody to reappear tomorrow.

Nothing short of a major overhaul of the court system is needed to address family violence - the "sickness of society", Dame Cath Tizard said today.

Sir Owen Glenn's inquiry suggests shifting the burden of proof in "domestic" cases so the alleged perpetrator is considered guilty, until proven innocent.

A woman ran to her neighbour's house to find a critically ill baby going purple and his eyes rolling in his head yesterday.

I met Dr Patrick Kelly in 2000 after a spate of infamous abuse cases brought to light the horrifying extent of child maltreatment in New Zealand.

A pioneering programme targeting new parents is helping to halt a rising trend in babies injured by being shaken.

The trial of Rolf Harris has been unexpectedly delayed just as it was drawing to a conclusion.

Jurors in Rolf Harris's sex abuse trial have been urged to find the entertainer guilty on the basis that 10 alleged victims have given "chillingly similar accounts".