Arrest in Labour camp assault case
Youth Minister Peeni Henare says it is disappointing that sexual assaults were alleged to have taken place at a Labour event.
He spoke out after the person at the centre of alleged sexual assaults during a Labour Party youth camp was arrested.
Police yesterday said the 20-year-old man had been arrested and bailed to appear in court on four charges of indecent assault. ‘‘This follows an investigation by police into allegations relating to a Labour Party summer camp at Waihi.’’
The accused is due to appear in Auckland District Court on July 5. Police would not comment further on the case.
Labour Party president Nigel Haworth said the party backed the police decision to lay charges.
The party’s internal report, prepared by Maria Austen (formally Berryman), was ‘‘focused on the party’s policies and procedures around the summer camp, if they were properly applied, and how we should correct any deficiencies’’, he said.
‘‘Maria Austen’s investigation is ongoing and separate from the police actions today. We will report back on her findings once we have received and considered them.’’
Howarth said the party would not be making any further statement on the charges or the alleged incidents as the matter was now before the courts.
The arrest came after allegations a man sexually assaulted four 16-year-olds. It is alleged he put his hands down the pants of at least three of them during the Waihi camp in February.
The Young Labour supporter was ejected the morning after the alleged incidents took place and barred from future events. There was alcohol at the summer camp, despite some people in attendance being underage.
Henare, who had visited the camp in his capacity as a Labour MP, said the correct process had been followed by police.
‘‘The youth Labour camps are a forum for young people to get politically involved and get engaged in politics, I’d hate to see them go.’’
Henare said the onus was on event organisers, and parents, to make sure such functions were safe before they sent their children along.
‘‘As a parent, before we send our kids anywhere, we make sure that the environment is safe for them.
‘‘I expect that any event from now on, and into the future, will take into account that you clearly have a young group of people, so all the safeguards that I’d expect as a parent should be in place, before a parent even sends them.’’ One victim told
Newsroom: ‘‘To know that four months after the assaults occurred, some action is finally being taken is fantastic. It feels like there’s some closure. After months of backtracks, lack of support and media coverage, it’s all coming to a head.
‘‘Now the arrest . . . and the release of the independent report in the next few weeks is really going to put the assaults and response to the assaults seriously in the spotlight.
‘‘I’m hoping that some good will come out of it and the [man] begins to realise the seriousness of his actions and the awful position it has put not only me in, but the other three victims and the Labour Party too.
‘‘This whole ordeal has detailed perfectly the party’s failings regarding sexual assault as a whole, yet somehow I am confident and remain hopeful that the party will not let something like this happen in the future.’’
Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters refused to comment on the arrest, or the issue in general, while it was before the courts.
Labour’s deputy leader, Kelvin Davis, said he was happy there had been an arrest. ‘‘Now it’s before the courts . . . and the process has to play out.’’