The Crown has opened its case against a former CYF caregiver who it says sexually abused eight boys in his care, rewarding some with drugs and intimidating one into silence with gang involvement and a death threat.
Photo: RNZ / Jordan Bond
The High Court trial of Earl William Opetaia, a former boxing coach and Child, Youth and Family-approved (CYF) carer, began today in Auckland.
Opetaia denies all 33 charges against him, including sexual violation, indecency against boys under 16, supply of cannabis and methamphetamine, and threatening to kill.
His lawyers say the claims are entirely made up in a bid by the complainants to get compensation.
Over a five-year period in the early to mid-2000s, Earl Opetaia ran an Auckland home for CYF.
CYF was a government agency and predecessor to Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Children.
More than 150 boys spent time in his care during this time, including Liam Ashley, a teenager who was murdered in the back of a prison van by George Charlie Baker in 2006.
Eight of these boys have alleged serious sexual abuse by Opetaia, as Crown prosecutor Belle Archibald outlined to the jury.
"He was supposed to care for them. And rather than provide these boys with the safe and secure environment that they desperately needed, Mr Opetaia used them. Mr Opetaia was paid by the state to care for these boys, and instead he exploited them for his own sexual gratification."
Archibald said the boys - many under 16 and all under 18 at the time - were vulnerable and from difficult homes.
In his role as their caregiver, she said Opetaia sexually abused boys over a number of years. Opetaia allegedly told one boy "I get what I want, when I want". Many of the particulars of the allegations are too graphic to report.
She said one boy, 15 years old at the time, was invited into his room with treats before being abused.
"He made him a milo, gave him a biscuit, and they shared a cannabis joint." The boy said he was then sexually abused.
Archibald said the boys said they were given drugs as a reward after being abused, and Opetaia offered one boy pizza and a fizzy drink.
To keep it quiet, Archibald said, Opetaia intimidated them.
"Many of the men were threatened by Opetaia to not tell anyone what was happening to them. 'Don't tell anyone or you'll get beaten up. I'll get the gang on you. Bad things will happen to your family. Nobody will believe you'."
And he allegedly told one: "If you open your mouth, if you say anything, I'm going to kill you or hang you off the balcony by your neck."
Another boy was in Opetaia's care for just one day - a day in which he alleges Opetaia forced the boy to touch him inappropriately, before offering him pizza and his favourite fizzy drink. Once the boy could get away, Archibald said, he escaped out a window, jumped over fences and ran for over two hours to get to a house of a friend and never returned.
Opetaia denies all the charges.
His lawyer, Anoushka Bloem, said the claims were "fabricated" and the complainants have made the situations up in the hope they would be compensated for being abused in state care.
She said Opetaia, coming from a difficult background himself, had a passion for helping troubled young people and setting them on a better path.
"What Opetaia says is that he did not abuse them, sexually or physically. He did not hurt them - he helped them," Bloem said.
"He cared about these young men that found themselves in CYF's care ... there were many success stories from the young men that he helped. The defence case is that these success stories are incompatible with these complaints. Why? Because they are not true."
It was revealed in court that Opetaia had been convicted and did jail time for a 2014 assault of a separate, unrelated underage person. That complaint lead police to launch this investigation.
Bloem said the complainants in this case did not complain until they were approached by police following the 2014 conviction.
She said they had a history of lying, as evidenced by a number having criminal convictions, and made up their claims of sexual abuse so they could be compensated financially.
She said Opetaia never offended against any of the boys in CYF's care.
"This is how the seed was planted for the new false allegations, because Mr Opetaia became a target. Once he was actually convicted of assaulting a young person, he was low-hanging fruit - ripe for the picking for false complaints. Who would believe him now?" Bloem said.
The jury will hear evidence from a number of the complainants.
The trial before Justice Gault is set down for six weeks.