Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

A second priest who worked at St Bede’s College was accused of sexual abuse by three complainants over three decades, it can be revealed.

The priest, who “strenuously denied” the allegations, was rector at the school for more than a decade and worked alongside a priest who was recently revealed as sexually abusing four boys.

The school’s current rector says the matter is “distressing”, and that any form of abuse is “unacceptable”.

RNZ earlier revealed that former priest Rowan Donoghue had admitted six charges including indecent assault on a boy aged 12-16, indecent assault on a boy 16 and over and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection. He is awaiting sentencing.

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

The offending related to four boys who were boarding at St Bede’s College in Christchurch between 1996 and 2000.

It can now be revealed that another priest, Fr Brian Cummings, was also accused of sexual abuse by three different complainants.

Cummings, who died in 2022 age 68, was rector at the school between 1990 and 2001.

RNZ approached the Society of Mary for comment on allegations involving Cummings last week.

Initially the religious order said if there were allegations about any other Marists they encouraged complainants to take them to police.

Pressed further for comment, a Society of Mary spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday it had records of three complaints of sexual abuse against Cummings from three complainants.

“They were received in 1996, 2014 and in 2023; the third came after he had died. All related to his time at St Bede’s College. Cummings strenuously denied the accusations in 1996 and 2014.

“The first two complaints were investigated by police and the Society of Mary. Police took no action on either complaint. The third complaint was investigated by the Church.”

RNZ asked St Bede’s College rector Jon McDowall for comment on allegations of sexual abuse in relation to Cummings.

He replied the school was “aware of allegations against the late Father Cummings”.

“Those allegations are working through a process and we are not able to offer any further comment at this time.”

He said he found the matters “distressing”.

“Any form of abuse is unacceptable, regardless of when it occurred or whether it involved one individual or many.

“I was not in this role at the time these matters arose. My responsibility now is to ensure we respond with clarity, care and integrity.”

He said work was under way to understand what was known historically and how those matters were addressed.

“That work is being led by the current Boards and myself.

“Some historical allegations were previously subject to investigation. Where new information comes to light, we encourage it to be brought forward and addressed through the appropriate channels.

“What matters most is that anyone impacted feels supported and heard. We are committed to ensuring concerns are addressed appropriately, with care, integrity and accountability.”

He said the school today operated with “clear safeguarding expectations, strong oversight, and a culture where student well-being comes first.”

“Abuse has no place at St Bede’s – past, present or future.”

In a statement Detective Superintendent Darryl Sweeney said: “Police can confirm offending was reported to us centred on St Bedes in the 1980s/90s, investigated by Canterbury District in 2013.

“Following enquiries, the evidential test to proceed with prosecution was not met.

“This investigative material has been handed to the current investigation [into Donoghue].”

McDowall sent an email to former St Bede’s students on Tuesday. The email, seen by RNZ, referred to “continued media coverage” relating to “historical matters” related to the school.

“I am aware there may be further reporting in the coming days. I do not want you as Old Boys and Alumni to be caught off guard if additional historical matters are referenced. I will not speculate on what may or may not be published, but it is possible that some of the content may be difficult to read.”

McDowall said he recognised that for many former students the coverage may “bring back difficult memories or raise personal questions about your own time at the college”.

“For some, it may be confronting or unsettling. That response is entirely understandable.”

Anyone who wished to speak to him about any concerns, or share their own experiences could contact him directly.

Cummings’ departure from St Bede’s College was marked in the 2001 yearbook.

Cummings first started at the school in 1980 as an english and religious education teacher, he was also a dormitory master, eventually becoming the dean of boarders. In 1988 he left the school and was deputy rector at St Patrick’s College Silverstream, but returned about two years later to become rector.

“St Bede’s has been his primary focus and the goal of all his efforts. He has never tired in working for the good of the Staff and Students who make up this College,” the magazine said.

McDowall earlier told RNZ it was brought to his attention by police in recent weeks that the college had previously been notified of concerns relating to Donoghue.

“On learning this, I immediately took steps to establish clearly what was known by the school, when it was known, and how it was handled. I was not in this role at the time, and records from that period are limited. This work is ongoing; I am committed to gaining as much clarity as possible and doing so with care and integrity.

“I will say again, if there was inaction, and any failure to respond appropriately, then I am appalled. My thoughts remain with the victims and survivors who continue to live with the impact of this harm.”

Police appeal for people to come forward

In a statement to RNZ Detective Senior Sergeant Karen Simmons said last week police were appealing for anyone with information on offending by Donoghue to come forward.

A suppression order on Donoghue’s guilty plea was lifted last month.

“Following the lifting of all suppression, police have been made aware that former students of Wellington school St. Patrick’s College Silverstream, have alleged similar offending by Father Donoghue,” Simmons said.

“We know it can be incredibly difficult and at times distressing to talk about these matters, but we would like to reassure any victims of offending that we will take them seriously.

“Police has a number of officers and detectives dedicated to these cases, and we provide a safe space to report offending in confidence.”

St Patrick’s Silverstream rector Rob Ferreira earlier told RNZ the school had not been made aware of any allegations of abuse in care while Donoghue worked at the school between 1982 to 1992.

“We have not had any inquiries from the police either.

“We operate according to clearly set out guidelines and best practice and you should note that our primary concern is the wellbeing of our students. Given that – our protection of the privacy and any other rights of survivors of abuse and other individuals would be paramount.”

He said the school had informed the community that Donoghue’s name suppression had lifted.

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If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Sexual Violence

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The small Northland settlement where a woman was mauled to death by a pack of dogs is devastated, a councillor and kaumātua for the region says.

Emergency crews rushed to Kaihu north of Dargaville on Monday and Police remained at the scene several hours.

Cordon tape was tied across the gate.

The community is tiny – the pub is for sale, there’s rugby field, a small gas station down the road and a smattering of homes.

“Our thoughts and our aroha is with the grieving family and the community,” Snow Tane told RNZ after learning of the attack.

He himself had driven by the scene before he knew what happened, taking note of the flurry of emergency vehicles that rushed there.

Tane had since heard from some who live in Kaihu.

“We’ve got a community there that’s absolutely devastated,” he said.

“So my thoughts are with the community and I’m really, you know, in the next few days, I hope to be able to support both the family and the community.”

Tane, a Kaipara councillor, will be freeing up his diary to do so.

“My sort of position is is very clear and it’s around dog owner responsibility and what that responsibility means and how we need to ensure that dog owners act in a more responsible manner,” he said.

“Because this has occurred, and it has occurred throughout New Zealand over the past 20 years and that and I think it’s really important that we need to make sure that dog owners understand and know what their responsibilities are, and two, we need to be checking and ensuring that there is compliance to those responsibilities.”

Tane said people should alert authorities immediately about any uncontrolled dogs in neighbourhoods and communities.

“Compliance officers should attend and act accordingly to these situations,” he said.

After the attack a local told RNZ the dogs had been at the property for about a year.

“There’s been so many complaints about them in the last year – the council know and haven’t done anything.

“They run out onto the road all the time. I was really scared about that and somebody getting hurt,” they said.

At least two dogs in the community were notorious for chasing cars as well as cyclists on the Kaihu Valley Bike Trail.

The Kaipara District Council would not say if the dogs that attacked and killed the woman were known to animal control.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts is asking officials for urgent advice after the death.

He said the Department of Internal Affairs is woking on the issue with local councils to improve dog control.

Watts expected new guidelines in the second half of this year.

Kaipara District mayor Jonathan Larsen called the death tragic and a sad situation for the families.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

An Antarctic sediment sample dating back millions of years shows evidence that a major ice sheet partially or totally collapsed during a previous warm period.

The sediment core was retrieved by a New Zealand-led research team from beneath half a kilometre of ice, during a record-breaking mission in a remote part of Antarctica.

It will now help answer the question of when, and how drastically, the West Antarctic ice sheet might melt as the climate keeps warming – releasing up to five metres of sea level rise as it goes.

Previously, the largest samples retrieved from that deep beneath an Antarctic ice sheet were only about 10 metres in length.

Camping on the ice, 1100 kilometres from the nearest permanent base, the team used a huge drill rig to extract a 228-metre sample of mud and rock, three metres at a time.

It dates back an estimated 23 million years – giving climate researchers an enormous geological record to examine.

“It still feels a little bit unreal, to be honest,” expedition co-chief scientist Molly Patterson said.

“I can’t imagine anything else in my professional life scaling that experience up.”

Collecting the sample was crucial to confirming models of what might happen to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet as the temperature warms by 2°C or more.

At the moment, the ice sheet is protected by ice shelves – floating layers of ice formed by the ice sheet flowing off the Antarctic continent.

Without them, the flow of ice into the ocean will accelerate, meaning the potential collapse of the entire ice sheet.

Some of the smaller shelves could collapse within years, but the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest of them, is still stable – for now.

However, early analysis of the sample confirms what the researchers already suspected from previous modelling – that there was a period in history when, instead of thick ice in that part of Antarctica, there was open ocean.

Patterson’s fellow co-chief, Huw Horgan, said from about the 200-metre mark, they started finding diatoms in the sample – small photosynthetic creatures that can only exist when there’s light.

“When there’s a thick ice shelf, no light gets through, so these organisms can’t live in the presence of the ice above them.

“So, they really tell you that there was open ocean, that there was no ice shelf, that there was no ice sheet there at the time they were deposited. So, it’s a very direct indicator of open ocean conditions at the site.”

The core has been transported safely to New Zealand and the next step is to accurately date it, Horgan said.

“Being able to then take that and relate it to what the temperature was in the past, what global temperatures were in the past, that’s really strong evidence for what we can expect the ice sheets to do in the future.”

That would also help to determine the rate at which any melting might occur.

All of that information would be fed into models of sea-level rise, which is expected to affect one billion people by the end of this century – within the lifetimes of children alive today.

“No one’s going to put their hand up and say, I want an unstable West Antarctica, I want four to five metres of sea level [rise],” Horgan said.

“But for me, any trepidation in finding out that result, finding out that there’s the absence of ice in these places is tempered by the fact that now we’re informed and better informed is better prepared.”

Third season lucky

The sediment was collected from a location where the Ross Ice Shelf and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet meet, called Crary Ice Rise.

There is no permanent base there.

Instead, an advance team transported equipment 1100km across the ice shelf from Scott Base, so the expedition could camp out for weeks while they set up the drill rig and got to work.

It was the third attempt, after equipment failures during the 2024 and 2025 Antarctic summer seasons.

Head driller Tony ‘TK’ Kingan has been travelling to Antarctica for nearly 30 years to work on drilling projects.

This expedition was more technically difficult than most, because the ice was directly touching the bedrock – meaning the ground beneath the ice was also frozen, he said.

Before they could even start extracting sediment, the drilling team used a hot water drill to get through the 500 metres of ice sitting on top of it.

They then lowered a ‘riser’ – essentially a long pipe – through the hole in the ice so the drill could pass through it to the ground below.

“Whenever we stopped drilling in the ground itself, the hole would want to start freezing,” Kingan said.

To stop that happening, the drilling team had to keep the riser moving, and hot water circulating around the clock.

“Right to the bitter end, it was pretty full-on, pretty stressful. We’re running 24 hours in that instance over the drilling period,” he said.

“You can’t really relax until all the gear is out of the hole and the project’s done and we haven’t hurt anyone or lost any gear.”

Patterson said the first piece of core came up while she was off-duty – but she made sure to be there.

“I was working the night shift and it was during the day shift, but I just, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep or stay away. I just personally wanted to witness it.”

There was “a huge sense of relief” that the expedition had succeeded, Patterson said.

“Just because [of] the past two seasons, the challenges we’ve had, and also recognising how technologically difficult all this was.”

Horgan said the drilling team had managed the scientists’ expectations about what the first core might look like.

“There’s often nothing in it, and if there is, it might just be what they call drilling mud, which is just the fluid they put down to lubricate everything,” he said.

“And when the first core came up, it was actual core, and it was rock. And that was a fantastic feeling.”

There were brief celebrations when the first core came up, and again at landmark depths – 50m, 100m and 200m.

“There’s definitely a pat on the back and a hug,” Horgan said.

“And the geologists are great. They’ll celebrate different rock types. So you get a core which has a different rock type, and suddenly a message will whip around the camp, and everyone’s coming and running to see the core.”

The science team is now finalising plans for a full analysis, so they can begin working on the results.

Horgan said there will also be discussions about future expeditions, including to the site of their previous failed attempts.

“We’re going to want to acquire more data in different places, sampling different parts of the geological record and looking at different ice sheet processes.

“We’ve got this incredible capability now, and I think it would be wise to use it.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Banks Peninsula has been hammered by nearly 10 times the average monthly rainfall in just 48 hours, MetService says.

The deluge has left the peninsula cut off, with slips and flooding blocking State Highway 75, the main road between Christchurch and Akaroa.

A state of emergency remains in Banks Peninsula, about 250 properties have been without power overnight, and there are also cell and internet outages.

Boil water notices are in place for Wainui and Little River.

Canterbury Civil Defence controller Duncan Sandeman said he didn’t know how long the peninsula would remain isolated – but reopening the road would be Wednesday’s priority.

“That’s a decision for NZTA, what I do know is that they’ll have contractors working pretty hard to get that lifeline reopened,” he said.

A damaged fibre optic cable was causing the communications outages, said Sandeman.

“That’s created a number of dramas … the comms is patchy, we know that the 2degrees cell network is able to take texts.”

People could also dial 111 in an emergency, he said, and civil defence staff were communicating via satellite phones.

School children stuck at camp

About 40 primary school children are stuck at Wainui Park Camp on the peninsula, and the manager has no regrets about the trip going ahead.

Wainui Park Camp is run by the Kind Foundation, and it’s been hosting a rural Christchurch school trip since Monday.

The foundation’s chief executive Josie Ogden Schroeder said the camp is well equipped with food, water, power and communications, and the group was staying in a building on a hill away from the river.

“This is a country school, they are full of beans, they’re totally relaxed … they’re all absolutely fine, they are very safe where they are,” she said.

“I don’t think that there’s any major concerns about safety, it’s more just the adventure of it all, and I believe that school is turning this into a pretty awesome learning experience for those kids.”

Despite the wet weather forecast, Ogden Schroeder said it was the right call to continue on with the camp.

“Heavy rain shouldn’t stop outdoor education because that’s actually the entire point of going away on camp is to actually experience the outdoors and learn about such things,” she said.

“However, if we had known … that the road would be cut off and such like, then of course then we would have been saying to schools, ‘look, this is not a sensible time for you to be coming to Wainui’.”

The camp was not badly damaged, save for a few small bridges over creeks, thanks to flood mitigation work over the last year, Ogden Schroeder said.

School trips scheduled for the rest of the week had been cancelled, she said.

Warning level questioned amid massive rainfall

MetService meteorologist Katie Lyons said Canterbury had seen a “huge amount” of rainfall – with Banks Peninsula in particular taking on nearly ten times the average monthly amount in just 48 hours.

Banks Peninsula

• 48 hours, Sunday night to Tuesday night: 300mm
• Monthly average rainfall: 35mm

Christchurch city

• 48 hours, Sunday night to Tuesday night: 40mm
• Monthly average rainfall: 30mm

Some Banks Peninsula locals have questioned why the MetService weather warning wasn’t upgraded from orange, to a rare red.

Lyons said it’s too soon to say whether it was the right call – but MetService would analyse it, which was standard practice.

“We don’t just look at the rainfall that has fallen, we look at the impacts that were actually felt, because sometimes the heaviest rain falls in places that no one lives, and that means no one cares,” she said.

There was a lot of “post-analysis” to get through which involved working with councils to understand how badly people were affected, Lyons said.

Red warnings are issued when there’s high confidence of extreme impact and risk to life, she said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The 10 newly-independent polytechnics have been kick-started with more than $325-million from their former owner, super-institute Te Pūkenga.

Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds said the organisations were recapitalised with sufficient funds to cover three months’ spending plus any ring-fenced funds they took with them when they were subsumed by Te Pūkenga, the NZ Institute of Skills and Technology.

“Some polytechnics had significant reserves going into Te Pūkenga, while others had significant debt. Each polytechnic received three months of operating expenditure, plus their original ring-fenced reserves (if applicable) plus any other restricted funds (if applicable),” she said.

Simmonds said five Industry Skills Boards had temporarily taken over seven work-based learning divisions of the mega-institute which were recapitalised with $62.7m.

She said the money would ensure financial viability and sustainability of training during the transition phase while the boards were temporarily accountable for work-based learning.

Simmonds said any remaining funds would be returned to the Crown after work-based learning moved to a tertiary education organisation such as a polytechnic or private training provider.

However, any previously agreed ring-fenced reserves would got to the tertiary education organisation.

Simmonds said the funding was arranged by Te Pūkenga and the Tertiary Education Commission.

Canterbury institute Ara received $80.8m, while the combined United/Manukau Institute of Technology received $52m, and Eastern Institute of Technology $34.5m.

The Open Polytechnic and Southern Institute of Technology each received more than $27m and Otago and Waikato more than $24m each.

Nelson-Marlborough received $22.6m, Toi Ohomai $20m, and Ucol $11m.

Among the former work-based learning divisions, Competenz received $20.9m, the Primary ITO $14m, EarnLearn $8.7m, Connexis and Careerforce more than $6m each, ServiceIQ $4m, and HITO $1.7m.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A father shouted to his children to get clear of a large slip as it fell away from the base of his home – rendering it uninhabitable.

People in the lower North Island were confronting the damage to their neighbourhoods after heavy rain and high winds felled trees, flooded homes and closed schools yesterday.

Aaron Pahl said he arrived at his home in Stokes Valley – north of Wellington City – after picking up two of his children when their school was closed on Monday morning.

“I was looking from my path down at my backyard and I’m like ‘something’s not right here’. I looked at the ground and it’s just dropped about a metre and a half.

“About half an hour later, I was outside and I heard it start cracking, like all the trees just start cracking and crunching. So I pretty much screamed out to my kids ‘get your arses up here now!’ and I watched the whole thing just slide down the bank,” Pahl said.

Pahl said it felt like slow motion as his back fence, a green house and a section of scaffolding slid down into the valley behind his property, leaving his deck and the rear foundation of his home hanging above the precipice.

He said he estimated an area of yard about 30 by 10 square metres disappeared over the edge.

“It was a pretty big storm, but we’ve never had anything like that happen to us, never thought it would happen. The bank that slipped away had like 30 metre tall manuka trees on it. They were there for forever, massive trees and the roots must have been huge but obviously not huge enough to retain the bank,” Pahl said.

Pahl said the family only had time to grab a handful of personal belongings before they had to leave the property.

Later in the day he heard from a neighbour that council staff had been at the site.

“I went back and there’s letters all over the door saying damaged buildings, do not enter, stuff like that. And then there’s something that says the remedial work has to be done or the building has to be demolished,” Pahl said.

Pahl said the family was now “in limbo” – staying at his in-laws – as they waited to hear how his insurance company could help with an accommodation supplement to house them ahead of any potential repairs.

“I’ve just spent thousands of dollars doing the house up, new kitchen, new bathroom, recarpeting, redecorating the whole interior.

“I’ve spent pretty much most of my free time, doing up my own house so I can sell it to do better for my family. It’s – hopefully – not all lost, but it’s very unclear right now. If that goes down the drain, I’m pretty much screwed,” Pahl said.

A Lower Hutt City Council spokesperson confirmed Pahl’s home had been issued with a dangerous building notice.

They said the building had been assessed as “damaged enough not to be safe to be in” and details of what next steps had to be taken where outlined in the notice to the owner.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A state of emergency has been declared in Banks Peninsula, a boil water notice is in place, a river has burst its banks and a highway closed.

See how the day’s events unfolded with our liveblog:

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand