Two more charged in Dilworth sex probe

More than 100 victims have now emerged in the Dilworth School sexual abuse investigation, which yesterday saw two new arrests.

A 70-year-old Palmerston North man faces three charges of indecent assault and one of inducing a boy to do an indecent act.

A 71-year-old Levin man faces three charges of indecency with boys.

It is unclear at this stage when the alleged offending happened or how many victims were involved.

Police originally arrested seven men — mostly former teaching staff and tutors — in September after an 18-month investigation into allegations of abuse at the Auckland boarding school between the 1970s and 2000s.

After the initial arrests in September, police were swamped with calls from other men who also wanted to report allegations of abuse.

Detective Senior Sergeant Geoff Baber said police have now spoken to more than 100 men who have identified as victims of sexual abuse while attending the school.

He said the latest arrests were made as a result of the “large volume of calls received by the team since last year”.

The men who have just been arrested are on police bail and will appear in the Auckland District Court on March 1.

One of the men originally charged, former assistant principal Ian Wilson, has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next month. Another, former scout leader Richard Charles Galloway, died in November from cancer. The others, including former chaplain Ross Browne, Rex McIntosh and Alister Harlow, have denied the allegations and are still going through the court system. Two of the men still have name suppression.