The Young Labour Camp Indecent Assault Case: Part One

Before we have a look at the court case let’s first refresh our memories.

There were ‘allegedly’ sexual assaults on four underaged youth who were supplied with copious amounts of alcohol and left unsupervised at the Labour party Summer Youth Camp.

The Sex Scandal Timeline:

• 9/02/18 Day 1 of Young Labour Summer Camp D-Day -1
• 9/02/18 Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Adern speaks to Summer Camp. Labour MP, Peeni Henara Minister of Youth Affairs attends Summer Camp and speaks
• 10/02/18 Day 2 of Young Labour Summer Camp D-Day
• 10/02/18 Labour MP Tamati Coffey attends Summer Camp and speaks on Maori development
• 10/02/18 Dr Sarb Johal attends Summer Camp and speaks on mental health
• 10/02/18 Labour’s Coromandel Spokesman, Nathaniel Blomfield attends Summer Camp. Large-scale drinking session occurs with a “mountain” of alcohol including rum, vodka, cider and an array of RTDs. Many people drinking at this session including a 15-year-old child. Drinking session attended by Labour MP Liz Craig
• 10/02/18 Camp Supervisor, Young Labour’s Senior Executive Secretary, Tess Macintyre goes to bed at 2100
• 10/02/18 Twilight ends at Waihi 2155
• 10/02/18 2 male and 2 female 16-year-old children sexually assaulted by having a person’s hands stuck down their pants at Young Labour Summer Camp.
• 11/02/18 Day 3 of Young Labour Summer Camp D-Day +1. NZME runs story on Chris Bishop about a mother upset at him for messaging her daughter and other minors. All four victims interviewed by organisers of event, Young Labour, and asked what support could they provide.
• 11/02/18 First leak of assault into public sphere.
• 11/02/18 Alleged 20-year-old offender sent home from camp.
• 11/02/18 Labour’s spokeswoman for Rotorua issues, MP Angie Warren-Clark gives speech on feminism at Summer Camp
• 11/02/18 Manager of the Tauranga Women’s Refuge speaks to Summer Camp
• 11/02/18 Decision made, based on the Labour party’s and Young Labour’s internal process for dealing with these sorts of incidents not to advise victims’ parents.
• 12/02/18 Day 4 of Young Labour Summer Camp D-Day +2
• 13/02/18 D-Day +3
• 14/02/18 Labour General Secretary Andrew Kirton advised of Incident. Advised Young Labour to get back in contact with victims and see if they wanted any support. This was done via email after which two victims advised that they would like further contact and two victims did not respond to the email. D-Day +4
• 14/02/18 Labour party President Nigel Howarth and Labour Senior Vice President Beth Houston also made aware of incident.
• 15/02/18 D-Day +5
• 16/02/18 D-Day +6
• 17/02/18 D-Day +7
• 18/02/18 D-Day +8
• 19/02/18 D-Day +9
• 20/02/18 D-Day +10
• 21/02/18 D-Day +11
• 22/02/18 D-Day +12
• 23/02/18 D-Day +13
• 24/02/18 D-Day +14
• 25/02/18 D-Day +15
• 26/02/18 D-Day +16
• 27/02/18 D-Day +17
• 28/02/18 D-Day +18
• 01/03/18 D-Day +19
• 02/03/18 D-Day +20
• 03/03/18 D-Day +21
• 04/03/18 Cabinet Minister Megan Woods contacted via Facebook by victim who was unhappy that there had been no response from Young Labour following their response to the 14/02/2018 email. Cabinet Minister advises Andrew Kirton. D-Day +22
• 4/03/18 Cabinet Minister Megan Woods saw message on Facebook reporting incident and contacted poster to obtain more details and then contacted Andrew Kirton.
• 5/03/18 Andrew Kirton contacts Wellington support and counselling services Help for the first time. D-Day +23
• 6/03/18 D-Day +24
• 7/03/18 D-Day +25
• 8/03/18 D-Day +26
• 9/03/18 D-Day +27
• 10/03/18 Labour offers professional services to victims. D-Day +28
• 10/03/18 Counselling and support services offered to the alleged offender.
• 11/03/18 D-Day +29
• 12/03/18 First article about the incident appears in media. D-Day +30
• 12/03/18 Labour Prime Minister advised of incident by media.
• 13/03/18 Andrew Kirton reveals Labour are also investigating a similar incident from a previous Labour event. D-Day +31. Labour PM Jacinda Adern advises “Labour Party General Secretary Andrew Kirton ‘absolutely has my backing’ and should not resign over the incident.”
• 14/03/18 Media publish reports that one of the victims has laid a complaint with police. D-Day +32
• Former Labour Party President, Mike Williams advises the AM Show that he dealt with a similar case while in charge, however, could not provide details as it had gone to court and all details were suppressed.
• Labour party announces that they are suspending all scheduled events by their Young Labour wing.
• Labour party announces that alcohol will no longer be allowed at any future event where children younger than 18 years will be present.
• Labour MP Liz Craig admits to being present at Labour Summer Camp, however, she was asleep when the assaults took place and had only stayed overnight as she couldn’t get a flight home on the Saturday after presenting at the camp. Labour MP Liz Craig also states, “On the Saturday evening I attended a quiz event and went to bed early once this had finished…While alcohol was present, I understood the organising committee had put in place measures to ensure those under the age of 18 were not drinking, and that organising committee members had been designated to oversee the evening’s events.”
• Labour PM Jacinda Ardern acknowledges that her Instagram page still contains photos from the event and promises to take these photos down immediately.
• Labour PM Jacinda Ardern and the Labour party president front to media and during press event advise that neither Labour party President Nigel Haworth or the party’s general secretary Andrew Kirton will be resigning despite how the allegations were handled in the days and weeks after the camp.

Labour then moved to limit the damage to the party and the government by deploying the same playbook used in the McCarten ‘slave-Labour’ story by putting the blame on Young Labour in order to protect the party.

The Whaleoil blog challenged the party narrative.

It doesn’t ring true that Young Labour were running this camp when Andrew Kirton was there and authorised the Young Labour photo, when Tamati Coffey was there, when Liz Craig was there. On top of that, the organiser is in her twenties and also, my sources say, there were two staffers from parliament there as well. Is Jacinda Ardern really saying Young Labour ran the event when the General Secretary is clearly in attendance? Is she really going to run that line The facts don’t match up with her claims.

Whaleoil

Labour’s General Secretary Andrew Kirton was allowed to quietly resign one month later in March with a face-saving cover story before the review was revealed.

In June 2018, a man was finally charged, arrested and bailed to appear in court on four charges of indecent assault. The public was told that he would appear in the Auckland District Court on July 5th 2018.

On the 27th June 2018, Newshub reported that an internal report into the allegations would be released ”within weeks” and Stuff reported that the Labour Party review was expected to be released by mid-August but in the end, nothing at all was released publicly.

Which brings us up to date until yesterday when it was revealed that the trial of a 21-year-old man charged with multiple accusations of sexual assault at a Labour Party summer camp has begun.