PALMERSTON (NEW ZEALAND)
The Post [Wellington, New Zealand]
April 7, 2025
By Alecia Rousseau, Manawatu Standard
A man who used his position as a teacher, dorm master and head of the tuck shop to abuse several vulnerable young boys says he can’t recall the abuse.
Michael James O’Donnell, 76, was jailed for five years and two months in the Palmerston North District Court on Tuesday after he admitted the indecent assault and sexual violation of five students at Hato Paora College in the 1980s.
The historic sexual offending took place at several locations within the school grounds, including in O’Donnell’s own living quarters, as well as outside school when he took students with him to run errands.
Four of his victims wrote impact statements for the hearing, including Kamahl Tupetagi who asked the judge for his automatic name suppression to be lifted.
He had travelled from Australia to attend the hearing, and with a friend by his side spoke of the devastating and ongoing harm he endured at the hands of O’Donnell.
He had experienced the most serious abuse, and said he spent a lot of time at Hato Paora outside of school hours as he had nowhere else to go.
He was in the care of the social welfare, and felt helpless as O’Donnell’s abuse grew from touching, kissing and hugging to rape.
At one point he was so desperate to get away he faked appendicitis and was taken to hospital for surgery.
Judge Bruce Northwood said this remarkable effort to escape did not work as o’Donnell collected him from hospital and offended against him that same day.
Crown prosecutor Anna Barham read statements on behalf of the other boys, who were now in their 50s.
One man, who was 14 at the time of the abuse, said the incidents had profoundly impacted his life, and he had ongoing struggles with intimacy, relationships and self-esteem.
After the abuse, he ran away and lived on the streets, turning to drugs and prostitution to survive, with no family that wanted him.
He struggled to reconcile the abuse with his staunch Catholic faith, and became a withdrawn loner.
Another man spoke of being no stranger to abuse after coming from a violent home.
He felt this made his more susceptible to the sexual offending as he longed for someone to love and care about him.
He felt sorry for O’Donnell at first, and was confused when he made his sexual advances.
If he pleased him, he would get treats and food, but when he expressed a desire for the abuse to stop he was no longer allowed to work in the tuck shop.
He spoke of seeing other boys brought in to do the work instead, “leaving with sad faces and arms loaded with treats”.
A third victim spoke of the 30-year journey for justice and the toll it had taken on them.
He described O’Donnell as a large and imposing man at the time of the offending, and someone who had the ability to “groom, isolate and control” boys.
His offending included touching the boys’ genitals and putting his own on them, watching them dress and forcing them to touch his penis.
O’Donnell told a pre sentence report writer he could not recall the abuse but accepted “maybe he did do it”.
He admitted to hugging the boys, and knowing who they were, but said he was not the person who could do such things.
Northwood did not accept this and said abusing boys was part of his life at Hato Paora.
“I do not believe you.”
He said the offending had been persistent, premeditated and destructive, and O’Donnell used his position at the school to aid the abuse and breach any trust his victims had in him.
For all of the offending, he set a starting point of eight years in prison, but after allowing discounts for O’Donnell’s guilty pleas and personal circumstances ended with a term of five years and two months in jail.
O’Donnell was supported by three sisters and members of the church in the public gallery, and prior to his remand in custody had been living in Wellington with other retired priests.