Agency backs Labour not telling parents
Labour’s decision not to tell victims’ parents or police about alleged sexual assault at its summer camp came from internal processes, not advice from experts.
It is alleged a 20-year-old man sexually assaulted four teenagers, all aged 16, including putting his hands down the pants of at least three of them at the Young Labour summer camp in February.
There was alcohol present at the camp, despite some of the attendees being underage.
The Young Labour supporter was ejected the morning after the alleged incidents took place, and barred from future events.
The alleged incidents took place on Saturday, February 10, and Labour Party President Nigel Howarth, Senior Vice-President Beth Houston, and General Secretary Andrew Kirton were made aware on Wednesday, February 14.
Kirton said the party did not tell police, the victims’ parents, the prime minister, or other senior Labour Party MPs in order to keep the circle small, and not risk further distress to the victims.
Kirton said the decision to take this ‘‘victim-led approach’’ was based on the Labour Party’s and Young Labour’s internal processes for dealing with these sorts of incidents. It was not based on advice from experts.
However, the head of the sexual abuse survivor support organisation Help said Labour followed the correct process in dealing with alleged sexual assault at its sum- mer camp. It was up to the victims to tell police or parents.
In the meantime, Labour had offered to provide the victims with counselling, and support them if they decided to take further action and report the incidents to police. Help chief executive Conor Twyford said while the victim-led approach was best practice, Kirton should have engaged expert support services as soon as possible.
‘‘It would have been better in hindsight, to engage with professional services straight away, but the approach we had taken they agreed with it and would have agreed with it if we had contacted them earlier,’’ Kirton said.
Both Kirton and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged the party, and Kirton in particular, had dropped the ball when it came to engaging expert support services as soon as possible.
On March 5, Kirton contacted Help for the first time, after senior Labour minister Megan Woods contacted Kirton about the incident. One of the male victims sent Woods a Facebook message on March 4, which led her to immediately contact Kirton. Kirton then contacted Help, and two hours later responded to Woods to let her know he had been in touch with the young person and the situation was ‘‘being handled appropriately’’.
Kirton said he was unaware the teen was dissatisfied with the level of support offered, which came about when there was a lapse in communication on the part of Young Labour. ‘‘We’re still in touch with them and working through what support they want. If they want to be part of the discussion around how to improve the situation they can be involved in that work.’’
None of the victims had taken up the offer of counselling, to date.
While Labour did not seek advice at the outset on how best to deal with the incident, Twyford said she endorsed Kirton’s decision not to tell the victims’ families or police, adding that it was ‘‘best practice’’. ‘‘Victims should always have power over their own process.’’
It was up to the survivors whether to tell anyone about an incident, or report it to police. This gave them autonomy and control over the situation. Telling other parties on their behalf risked retraumatising the victims.
In terms of age, those involved were all aged 16, the age of consent. Regardless of age, police or others should only be notified by a third party, and the matter escalated, if the person was in danger of harming themselves, she said.
After Kirton contacted Help, which supports sexual abuse survivors of all genders, Help also contacted Wellstop to help support and educate the alleged perpetrator in order to change behaviour and stop any other harmful incidents, and the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network, which was in conversations with Labour about reviewing its procedures, practices and safeguards.
This was a learning opportunity for the Labour Party, and others, Twyford said.
Labour had a 16-page document that set out processes and procedures, however, it would be reviewing its handling of the situation.