Action on misconduct ‘far too slow’
A Wellington badminton club took months to take appropriate action after an allegation of serious sexual misconduct involving a junior female player was made against one of its coaches.
Sport New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle described the delays in handling the complaint as ‘‘deeply concerning’’.
‘‘The safety of young people must be a top priority at all levels of sport and this type of conduct is totally unacceptable.’’
The man, who The Dominion Post has chosen not to name to protect the privacy of those involved, resigned from his coaching role, which involved teaching junior players, towards the end of last year.
By that time the allegation was being investigated by police, Badminton NZ, Sport New Zealand and an independent third party.
Wellington Badminton Club chairman Craig Atkins confirmed a complaint relating to historical serious sexual misconduct was raised with the club, which employed the man, in July.
Joe Hitchcock, chief executive of Badminton NZ, the national association of which Badminton Wellington is a member, said it was not alerted to the complaint until October, when a staff member was informed by a person not involved in the incident.
An independent third party was then brought in to support and assist the club with its response, and a report was made to police, Hitchcock said.
Atkins said that from July to October, Wellington Badminton completed an ‘‘initial investigation’’.
During this time, the coach continued in his role but as the investigation progressed, the man was moved to working only under supervision and then to working solely from home, said Atkins. ‘‘We acknowledge this took longer than desirable and, in hindsight, the matter would have been best escalated to Badminton NZ much earlier. During the process of our investigation, we found no cause to believe that any other people had been, or currently were, in danger.
‘‘Our cautious initial approach to the investigation, due to its historic nature and the anonymity of the primary complainant, was, with the benefit of hindsight, far too slow,’’ Atkins said.
During the club’s disciplinary process, which resulted in the coach resigning, a second complaint was also considered, involving another female junior player.
The former coach did not respond to attempts to request comment and blocked messages from The Dominion Post on two different social media platforms.
Castle said Sport NZ became involved in November after being informed by Badminton NZ.
‘‘We are satisfied with how Badminton NZ has dealt with this matter . . . We were concerned to learn how long it took Wellington Badminton to act after receiving the allegations, and that is something we have asked Badminton NZ to look into.
‘‘A key factor here was the significant concerns around the environment that young people at Badminton Wellington had been exposed to which may fall outside of any criminal behaviour,’’ Castle said.
Sport NZ advised Badminton NZ to take its own action over the coach’s code of conduct breaches and to ensure no other club members were in immediate danger.
A police spokesman confirmed a report was received and no charges had been laid. ‘‘For privacy reasons, we are not able to provide any other comment on this matter.’’
Hitchcock said the matters were ‘‘deeply disturbing’’.
‘‘Once notified, Badminton NZ took swift action, including contacting and reporting to police and advising Badminton Wellington on its own response. It is obviously regrettable that we were not notified earlier, however we are working with Badminton Wellington to capture the lessons from this experience.’’
Hitchcock said the club failed to follow adequate policy and process. ‘‘This may be due to the informal nature of how the complaint was received by them, combined with their lack of experience in dealing with serious issues of misconduct such as this.
Whatever the reason for the delay – it is not acceptable.
‘‘Badminton NZ could have been sharper with our one to one support of our 25 associations and been stronger in our continued checks and balances to ensure all regional organisations have the capability to successfully deal with these serious incidents. As chief executive, I take full responsibility for this,’’ Hitchcock said.
As a result, Badminton NZ is reviewing what went wrong and how its processes can be improved to provide better support to its regional clubs.
All Badminton NZ coaches and key volunteers are police vetted every two years and Hitchcock said the individual had been vetted in 2019.
Atkins said the Wellington club was now reviewing all of its policies and procedures relating to staff and player conduct, on and off court.
All parties concerned now considered the matter closed. ‘‘Although [the primary complainant] feel we took a bit too long to address the concerns raised, they are glad we are learning from this,’’ Atkins said.
Castle said there were no formal requirements for national sporting organisations (NSOs) to alert Sport NZ about investigations of this nature. ‘‘NSOs as independent bodies are responsible for administration and governance of their sports.’’
However, Sport NZ has child safeguarding policies and provides online resources, including how to respond to an allegation against a staff member or volunteer. In February, it commissioned an independent complaints and mediation service, run by Immediation NZ, which is available to individuals at all levels of sport.
It is free, fully independent of national bodies and Sport NZ, and provides an opportunity for anyone engaged in sport and active recreation to lodge a complaint, issue or dispute and have it investigated and resolved.