Brigade leader filmed nude boys on camp

A Boys’ Brigade leader bullied young boys into getting naked while on a camp, then filmed them without their knowledge.

Brian Edward Pinnell, now 51, was only caught after another brigade leader found his SD memory card with the images and alerted police, who found more than 90 child sex abuse images on his devices.

Pinnell was this week jailed for 31 months and put on the child sex offenders register for offending against boys, including those in the brigade.

He earlier pleaded guilty to several charges of making an intimate recording, possession of objectionable publications and making objectionable publications.

While Pinnell had previously appeared before the courts for reasons unknown, Boys’ Brigade has defended its vetting and ‘‘zero tolerance’’ policy.

Pinnell, a cable layer, was associated with the Boys’ Brigade for about 30 years. At the time of the offending, he was the leader of a North Canterbury-based brigade company, which catered for boys aged 11 to 18.

The court heard during a weekend camp, Pinnell ‘‘dared and bullied’’ some boys to run across a field naked during the evening.

‘‘The defendant said to the boys if they did not do the run, they would have [to] stay silent in their beds until 8am or 9am. One boy removed his clothing and ran across the field completely naked. At times, a light was shone on the victim. The defendant was video recording him without their knowledge or authority,’’ the court summary of facts said.

The video included images of the boys genitals.

The next morning he again coerced two boys to run across a field naked or partially clothed. Pinnell again videoed the boys without their knowledge.

That night one of the young boys was covering himself with a sleeping bag while getting changed for bed. Pinnell pulled the sleeping bag off him and, despite the boy’s protests, took photographs of him.

The images were saved to an SD memory card, which was found by another leader of the camp who notified police.

Stuff is not naming the date nor location of the camp to protect the victims.

Pinnell admitted taking the photographs of the boys getting changed and told police his actions were ‘‘stupid’’. He denied recording the boys as they ran across the field and claimed ‘‘the recordings must have been done by someone else and he was being ‘stitched’ up.’’

Police seized Pinnell’s cellphone and electronic items. A forensic examination uncovered images on an SD card in the cellphone. Police found 19 images Pinnell had taken of a naked boy, including one with ligatures tied to the boy’s wrists and a bed.

Police searched Pinnell’s home a month later and seized his computer. They found 29 real images of children posing naked or partially naked. They found 44 computer generated and cartoon images of children engaged in sexual acts.

Pinnell declined to comment to police about this offending.

Boys’ Brigade NZ national director Michael Good said yesterday the organisation was investigating if Pinnell had been police vetted as per its current policy.

He said all leaders faced a ‘‘double process’’ of vetting.

‘‘All our leaders go through the normal police vetting process and we have a conversation with their pastoral minister about whether they are a suitable person to work with children,’’ he said.

The boys involved had been offered support and the organisation helped the police inquiry, he said.

‘‘At the end of the day we won’t stand for it. As soon as any complaints are made they are referred to police. It’s not acceptable and we have zero tolerance,’’ he said.

The organisation had policies and training in place to ensure leaders, except in a medical emergency, were never alone with boys.

Boys’ Brigade is a Christian-based organisation for boys that provides life development programmes.