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Last week, Stuff revealed that former high-profile priest Jonathan Kirkpatrick was found guilty of sexually violating a teen in the mid-90s. After the incident he became dean of Dunedin. [...]
[Former Labour MP Tim Barnett] had political aspirations and local government experience from his time in the UK. The vicarage hosted political meetings and events attended by influential figures, including former prime minister David Lange. Barnett became a Labour MP in 1996. [...]
The couple owned a bach at Lake Coleridge, near Mt Hutt in the Southern Alps. Kirkpatrick used it frequently as a holiday spot for friends and parishioners. The ever-busy Barnett occasionally met him there on a Friday night after a hectic working week.
Kirkpatrick went on to serve as dean of Dunedin Cathedral (St Paul’s) from 1996 to 2001.
In 2001, the pair went their separate ways after 18 years together.
In 2011, Kirkpatrick was sentenced to three years and two months imprisonment after stealing $660,000 from his then-employer Auckland University of Technology.
He spent the money on cars and holidays.
Fast forward to 2020. A man, then in his 40s, told police he was sexually violated by Kirkpatrick at the Lake Coleridge bach in early 1994, when he was 18 years old.
The man, who has statutory name suppression, said Kirkpatrick plied him with drugs and alcohol and played gay pornography in front of him, which made him uncomfortable.
After that, Kirkpatrick helped him to bed, he said, and he later woke to the priest sexually assaulting him.
Kirkpatrick denied any wrongdoing, but after a week-long trial in March, he was found guilty of a charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection. [...]
It’s understood that police suspect there may be more victims.
Barnett was among the witnesses called for the defence at Kirkpatrick's trial. After obtaining the notes of evidence, Stuff can report what he told the jury. His evidence gives an insight into Kirkpatrick’s life and activities around the time of his offending.
