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Hato Petera College are outraged over the *** abuse of students
by former teacher Elvis Tihirau Shepherd.
Palmerston North High Court found him guilty of four sex charges
against two of his teenage students.
Roihana Nuri has this report.
A dark cloud that has surrounded the well-known school for a long time.
He is talking about Elvis Tihirau Shepherd,
an experienced teacher who for a long time supported Maori youth,
but now a jury's decided he breached that trust.
That was the verdict for the four charges against him
for the abuse of two teenage boys
while teaching at Auckland's Hato Petera College in the early 1990s.
The two victims are now men in their 30s,
but still dealing with the scars of abuse.
We can't identify the victims.
During their evidence, Shepherd was shielded from their view.
The Crown said the separate incidents happened in 1990 and 1994
when Shepherd was a dorm master and te reo teacher.
The defence said the incident with the first victim never happened,
while the second incident was consensual.
This is Shepherd's second trial on these charges.
The jury couldn't decide on a verdict at the first trial.
The jury in the court were unaware that Elvis Shepherd's
already had two trials over similar behaviour
when he was principal at Feilding's Hato Paora College.
He gained a position at Hato Paora
despite concerns raised with both the school
and the education department.
Some of Shepherd's family were present
as the jury read it's verdict.
They were visibly upset.
We're enormously sad and bewildered really as to this outcome.
Elvis Shepherd is now behind bars, he'll be sentenced in September.
Roihana Nuri, Te Karere.