School failed to act on student tales, court told
Former music master denies 14 charges. Warning: This article describes sexual abuse
D ilworth students told their headmaster about sexual abuse by a music teacher but no action was taken, the High Court has heard.
Leonard Cave, of Whanganui, has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges relating to sexual violation, indecent assault, and supplying drugs to boys in Auckland and Hamilton over four decades from the 1970s.
Cave’s trial began before Justice Mary Peters and a jury in Auckland yesterday.
In his opening remarks, prosecutor Jacob Barry said the case was about a breach of trust by a person who would have been implicitly trusted by those in his care.
“The trust of six young men across four decades was broken by their seemingly affable, quiet choirmaster, Leonard Cave,” Barry said.
The first complaint came in 1970-71 from a Dilworth School choirboy, aged 14 or 15.
Cave, a tutor at the time, approached the boy in the Dilworth chapel, pushed him up against the wall and grabbed his crotch, before placing the boy’s hand on his own crotch.
The boy complained to the principal at the time, Peter Parr, but no action was taken.
Barry said this “set the stage for things to come” as complaints against Cave did not appear to have been referred to police or other authorities.
Cave left the school for another role overseas in 1971 and returned to Dilworth several years later as head of music.
In this role, he developed close relationships with some students, taking two boarders to a holiday home on Waiheke Island early in the 1980s.
The boys were given alcohol by Cave, and they drank late into the evening. Their memories were not totally clear, Barry said, but they remembered alleged abuse by Cave very clearly.
Cave placed one boy’s hand down his pants, and when he resisted, kept repeating the act. Another boy then witnessed Cave abusing the student.
Neither of the boys was prepared to report the abuse for decades, Barry said.
The fourth accuser was a Dilworth student who enrolled at the school in 1980. He joined the choir and studied music, and developed a close relationship with Cave.
He was also invited to the Waiheke bach, where Cave purchased a bottle of whisky for them to drink on the beach.
The boy got “extremely drunk” and had to be carried back to the bach, Barry said. Cave then attempted to get the boy to perform oral sex on him.
A fifth Dilworth student alleged being hosted at Cave’s bach on Waiheke in the early 1980s. After drinking heavily at a pub they returned to the bach and the boy was encouraged to play a game which involved taking his clothes off. Cave then attempted to perform oral sex on the boy, who resisted and fled the bach.
The court heard the boy complained to his mother, who laid a complaint with the school. That led to a meeting with the headmaster, after which Cave resigned his job.
However, Barry said, the mother said she felt nothing else would be done about the alleged abuse. She also did not feel comfortable going to the police about it.
The court also heard that Cave was later accused of supplying drugs to a person under 18 and sexual offending against a student at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton.
The boy did not tell the school or authorities at the time, but made a complaint to police in 2012. Police spoke to Cave but did not place charges.
A police investigation into historical abuse at Dilworth School, named Operation Beverly, resulted in charges against Cave and six other men in September 2020.
In his opening statement, defence lawyer Warren Pyke said there was another side to the story which had been detailed by the prosecution.
It was not in itself controversial that Cave had close contact with the complainants, Pyke said. But his client denied all of the offending alleged by his former students.
Pyke said he would raise issues of reliability of evidence given the amount of time that had passed since the alleged offending took place, especially in the Dilworth cases.
Whether the complainants’ memories could be relied on would be a key issue to consider, the lawyer said.
He would also question whether complainants had spoken the truth, in particular in relation to Cave’s alleged offending in Hamilton.
He concluded: “Cave denies any sexual interest in any of the complainants or any of these young men.”
The trial is expected to run for two weeks, and jurors will hear from 20 witnesses.