Teen calls on council to act
A 15-year-old boy who complained about Deon Swiggs’ allegedly inappropriate behaviour is calling on the Christchurch City Council to continue its investigation.
The council is not commenting on whether it will continue investigating a code of conduct complaint against the former councillor. Swiggs was ousted from his central city seat on Saturday, weeks after allegations he sent ‘‘grossly inappropriate’’ messages to youngsters. Swiggs denies the allegations.
When asked if the investigation would continue, given Swiggs was no longer a councillor, new chief executive Dawn Baxendale said there were a ‘‘number of matters that we need to deal with’’ post election. ‘‘We will advise you if and when we are in a position to make any statement regarding the code of conduct process with Deon Swiggs.’’
The boy, through a statement released by the Canterbury Youth Workers Collective, said he wanted the full investigation to go forward so the public could
Statement from teen
be confident the claims had been independently investigated.
‘‘The fact that Deon Swiggs is no longer a councillor does not change that some of the actions I am concerned about happened during his term.’’
Swiggs said in a statement that he would continue to cooperate with the investigation, but he was ‘‘disappointed’’ by the ‘‘terribly flawed process’’ it had followed so far.
‘‘It is immensely unfair that I have not been provided with the identities of the complainants and the fact the investigator was not provided with this information either is absurd,’’ he said.
‘‘I am deeply disappointed at the weekend’s election result. It is clear the timing of the leak to media regarding these allegations did affect voters as early polling showed I was set to win the seat comfortably.’’
High Court judge John Matthews launched a full investigation in early October into potential breaches of the code after he found two complaints against Swiggs were material.
Three complaints were dismissed as they related to Swiggs’ conduct outside his term of office. Of those three, one – which took place in 2013 when the complainant was 15 – was referred to ‘‘another agency’’, which appears to be the police.
The boy said he would be ‘‘disappointed’’ if the council did not follow through its responsibility to ensure complaints about the actions of a sitting councillor were fully investigated.
‘‘Especially as this may assist CCC in putting policies and procedures in place to ensure no other young person would feel the same way I have in places I am supposed to feel safe.’’
He also reiterated the complaint was not politically motivated.
Preliminary results show Swiggs received 977 votes in the local body election behind the winner, Labour-backed People’s Choice candidate Jake McLellan, who received 2142 votes. Independent Citizens candidate Clive Antony received 1193 votes. The final results are expected later this week.
Mayor Lianne Dalziel has previously said the allegations posed an ‘‘enormously challenging issue’’ for the council, and that its code of conduct process had been found ‘‘absolutely wanting’’.
‘‘The fact that Deon Swiggs is no longer a councillor does not change that some of the actions I am concerned about happened during his term.’’