Male Survivors Te Tai Tokerau

A 74-year-old former Dilworth teacher and housemaster has been sentenced to six years and three months’ imprisonment for historic sexual abuse of students in the early 1980s, as well as abuse of children after his tenure at the Auckland boarding school.

Robert Howard Gladwin Wynyard used a cane for support as he stood before Justice Simon Moore today in the High Court at Auckland, nearly 10 months after he pleaded guilty to 11 charges involving children who were between the ages of 8 and 15 when they were groomed.

He later sat stone-faced as prosecutors read aloud victim impact statements from seven of his eight victims, one of whom described him as a “dirty paedo who took advantage of vulnerable kids” and another who described stabbing himself in the stomach with a steak knife at the age of 16 due to the emotional trauma that the teacher had inflicted on him.

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A leaked email has revealed a Dunedin principal said a silver lining to the deadly Auckland floods was keeping a story about her school off the front page.

A pre-dawn blessing was held at Trinity Catholic College on January 28, to mark a new era for the school after changing its name from Kavanagh College.

It followed a 2020 investigation into former Bishop of Dunedin John Kavanagh, after whom the school was named.

The blessing was attended by staff, pupils, survivors and members of the community.

The Otago Daily Times attended with permission from Bishop Michael Dooley.

However, in a leaked email informing staff about impending media coverage of the blessing, Kate Nicholson wrote that she was unsure what “slant” the reporting would take, but “at least Auckland’s terrible weekend is likely to keep us off the front page — a silver lining hopefully”.

The email was sent the day after the blessing, when Auckland was still being battered by historic flooding.

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As a new day dawned over Trinity Catholic College, it was hoped the first rays of light also marked the start of a new chapter for the troubled Dunedin high school.

About 20 pupils, survivors of sexual abuse, and members of the community gathered at the school at 5am on Saturday for a blessing to mark the start of the first school year under its new name.

The former Kavanagh College became Trinity Catholic College on January 1, following years of lobbying from abuse survivors.

The new name was chosen following an inquiry last year which concluded that the late Bishop John Kavanagh, after whom the college was named, did not act on a complaint of abuse when he was Bishop of Dunedin from 1957 to 1985.

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A blessing is set to signal the start of a new chapter at a Dunedin school with a dark past.

The Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, Bishop Michael Dooley, will perform a pre-dawn blessing of the renamed Trinity Catholic College this Saturday, accompanied by the college kaumatua.

The former Kavanagh College became Trinity Catholic College on January 1, following years of lobbying from survivors of sexual abuse.

The new name was chosen following an inquiry last year which concluded that the late Bishop John Kavanagh, after whom the college was named, did not act on a complaint of abuse when he was Bishop of Dunedin from 1957 to 1985.

In consultation with the school community, Bishop Dooley decided to rename the school Trinity Catholic College.

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