Source: Radio New Zealand
Dilworth’s redress programme began in 2023, with 261 survivors having accepted and settled their applications for redress by the end of 2025. RNZ / Dan Cook
Warning: This story discusses sexual abuse.
A Dilworth survivor says a $90,000 redress offer is insultingly small.
Hector, whose real name RNZ cannot use, was a school boy when he was abused by Dilworth housemaster Alister Harlow in the 1990s.
Harlow was sentenced in 2022 on charges of attempted sexual violation, indecency with a boy, and indecent assault.
Since then Hector has gone through the redress process, which he described as degrading, and he wanted to know whether anyone would take responsibility for what had been done to him.
When Hector was offered the redress, more than 30 years after being abused, he felt marginalised.
“I’ve always known that the redress programme from Dilworth was a face-saving exercise,” he said.
“I’ve heard from other guys that have gone through the process that the wording in the redress offers is not a genuine apology, no one from Dilworth has or is going to take responsibility for what happened to me and others.”
He was unsure whether or not to take the money.
“No amount of money is going to make up for what happened, but it does seem insultingly small considering how much it affected my life, that Dilworth has known about what has happened to me since at least 1996.”
Hector said he was not told how the compensation panel arrived at the $90,000 figure, but the offer was essentially take it or leave it.
The whole process had been humiliating and degrading, he said.
“I have told my story to lawyers, judges, police officers, journalists. But the thing that really pissed me off and made me really angry was that I had to go to talk to three strangers and let them put a monetary value on it, on my trauma – and they thought it was worth very little.
“It’s possibly the angriest I’ve been over this whole process.”
Dilworth’s redress programme began in 2023, with 261 survivors having accepted and settled their applications for redress by the end of 2025.
The school said financial redress offers were not in themselves apologies, but survivors could receive a direct apology from the school or trust when they receive one.
Alister Harlow was sentenced in 2022 on charges of attempted sexual violation, indecency with a boy, and indecent assault. RNZ / Dan Cook
The school said many had done that, while others had declined the offer.
Board chair Jonathan Mason said in a statement the school understood the impact the abuse had and continues to have on survivors and that no amount of redress can make up for what happened and the harm it has caused.
“Dilworth’s response has been to front up and acknowledge what happened to survivors of abuse at the School, to sincerely apologise to those who were impacted including their families, and to assist survivors of abuse to access the redress programme and other support services,” he said.
“The redress programme’s independence from Dilworth is a critical feature of the programme, with the independent redress panel assessing claims brought forward by survivors and its expert determinations binding on Dilworth.”
The terms of reference for the programme stated any level of financial redress would have regard to the nature and extent of abuse suffered by the survivor, as well as the impact it had, the survivors vulnerability, the degree of failure from Dilworth, and any aggravating factors.
Neil Harding was another Dilworth survivor and advocated for others. He raised concerns about the consistency of the redress process.
“There’s 300 guys at least going through the process, what are they doing to determine consistency between the first guy and the 300th,” he asked.
There were others who had not accepted offers, Harding said.
“From my perspective, compensation is part of the process.”
“In terms of redress, you’re looking at recognition that it happened, remorse that it happened, putting in place policies to stop it happening again, recompense, and then restitution is the restoration of mana,” he said.
“It’s actually a journey, and the financial compensation is just one part of that.”
Harding believed the process was wrong.
“They have failed to budge and failed to listen at any step of the way.”
The redress panel operated independently of Dilworth.
The maximum amount of financial redress awarded to any survivor is $200,000 or $300,000 in exceptional circumstances.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand