Northland child sex offender jailed

A Kaitaia businessman who was a Child, Youth and Family caregiver and Mormon Church elder has been jailed for nearly six years for child sex offences.

Daniel Luke Taylor had denied his offending and was to stand trial on 14 charges of indecent assault against boys aged under 16 and two charges of attempted sexual connection with a boy under 12.

However, in the High Court in Whangarei in September the 35-year-old pleaded guilty to nine charges of sexual offending against children and young people.

On Thursday, Taylor was sentenced to five years and seven months in prison, and must serve a minimum period of two years and 10 months.

Through his lawyer, Taylor offered an apology to five boys he abused over a five-year period, including one placed in his care by government welafare agency Child, Youth and Family.

But Justice Woodhouse was not convinced of Taylor's remorse, saying he showed no insight into his offending.

The judge said as a respected businessman and priest of the Mormon Church, Taylor had actively sought to become a Child, Youth and Family caregiver and abused the trust of the boys, their whanau and the community.

In victim impact statements, the boys said the abuse had made them feel lonely, afraid, embarrassed and in one case suicidal.

As Taylor left the court a man punched the side of the dock, sprayed Taylor from a water bottle and shouted that he should burn in hell.

His lawyer, Arthur Fairley, later told Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint programme that Taylor would not appeal.

"He's not happy about it, but he accepts that's an appropriate sentence and he's instructed me in writing not to appeal it. He accepts the decision of the judge and he accepts he was dealt with very fairly by the judge."

Sentence 'manifestly inadequate', Taylor excommunicated

Outside court Anahera Herbert-Graves, who leads anti-child abuse lobby group Tu Tika, said the sentence is manifestly inadequate and did not reflect the enormity of the damage done to the boys and their families.

However, she said the judge was constrained by the rules Parliament has laid down for sentencing in such cases. She believed Daniel Taylor should have been jailed for 10 years.

Ms Herbert-Graves said Tu Tika would ask Northland MPs to sponsor a private bill to change sentencing laws so judges can impose tougher penalties on criminals who wreck the lives of children.

Meanwhile, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints says it has excommunicated Taylor.

Ms Herbert-Graves, a church member whose family made the first complaint to police, said Mormon elders were warned about Taylor as far back as 2007, but did not call in police and gave him more duties involving children.

She said she believes church leaders have learned a hard lesson that such behaviour cannot be seen just as a sin against God, but a crime that must be reported to police.

CYF says nothing in background checks

Child, Youth and Family says nothing in its background checks suggested there was anything to worry about Daniel Taylor.

The government agency's Te Tai Tokerau director, Marion Heeney, told Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint programme on Thursday that he duped everyone in the community.

Ms Heeney said the agency couldn't prevent abuse from ever happening again.

"I don't think we can. We're not going to be able to prevent every time a child has this happen to them, considering that we can't predict offending in the future from someone who has no profile in the past."

Ms Heeney said there is no reason to revise Child, Youth and Family's vetting processes.

But the head of a group that matches men to fatherless boys as mentors says the social welfare agency's vetting processes are not good enough.

Big Buddy chief executive Richard Ashton told Checkpoint the group looks at the likelihood of a person becoming a sexual predator. It builds up a profile in long interviews with applicants, including one with a psychotherapist and also talks to referees.

"Our attitude is history is one thing, but it is quite possible - and we've proven it over 10 years - to predict the likelihood that someone's going to be a sexual offender in their psychology. So we're talking about the difference between examining someone's psychology as opposed to examining their history."

Mr Aston said Big Buddy has clearly identified four potential predators who had no previous history and clean police records.

Social Development Paula Bennett said law changes going through Parliament at present would ensure that a more thorough background check on a person is carried out, not just a police check. She said what happened to the children abused by Taylor was horrific.