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Elvis Shepherd - Source: ONE News -
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A suspended prominent Maori educator has been found guilty of abusing boys at an Auckland school in the early 1990s.
Suppression orders against naming Elvis Dobson Shepherd were lifted in the High Court at Palmerston North last night when a jury delivered its verdict after deliberating for less than five hours.
The former Manawatu secondary school principal had denied four offences. Shepherd, 49, was suspended as principal of Hato Paora College, a Maori boys' secondary school near Feilding, after his arrest in November 2007.
Defence claims the incident with the first victim never happened, while the second incident was consensual.
But the Crown said on both occasions, Shepherd exploited his vulnerable charges when he was a dorm master and Te Reo teacher.
The Manawatu Standard reported the sexual activity between Shepherd and two teenage boys happened while he was teaching and living at Hato Petera College, a Maori Catholic boarding school on Auckland's North Shore.
Shepherd had been a student at the school before returning to teach te reo Maori in an experimental total immersion unit in 1989.
The first sexual encounter occurred in March 1990 after an annual gala day and disco, when Shepherd offered a drunk 16-year-old boy a bed for the night.
While the boy was sleeping Shepherd began performing oral sex on the boy and did another indecent act.
In 1994 Shepherd had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy who had gone to see him for help with te reo.
The victims, now in their 30s, came forward more than 10 years after the events.
Defence lawyer Paul Mabey, QC, said it was too early to say if an appeal would be lodged.
Justice Robert Dobson remanded Shepherd in custody for sentence in September.
Not a first
It's understood that this is Shepherd's second trial over
similar behaviour at Feilding's Hato Paora College, as the jury
could not decide on a verdict at the first and an acquittal on some
charges in the second.
At the time, Shepherd gained a position at the college despite
concerns raised with both the school and the education
department.
"This has been a prolonged and complex investigation, with the victims having the added stress of having to endure two trials," said detective Natasha Allan, of Feilding police.
The latest jury decision has come as a shock for Shepherd's whanau, who are highly regarded in education circles.
