To the Ombudsmen, 2 May 2010:

Letter to Office of the Ombudsmen 2 May 2010:

URGENT FORMAL COMPLAINT:

I made a formal complaint to your office over a year ago regarding a letter I received from the Board of Trustees of the South End School in Carterton and the involvement of the local Mayor, members of the Carterton and Masterton District Councils and local police in ongoing corruption, including the deliberate lies to the Privacy Commission.

The Privacy Commission was asked in writing to forward the complaint to your office on 1 April, and as I have received no response to date I assume they have failed to do so.

This complaint involves the huge backlog of uninvestigated child abuse allegations in the Wairarapa, including the allegations made to the police by me against Michael Murphy, Tracy Feast and Papa Vakae, and the fact that at least two of those people have gone on to commit serious violent crimes since I made those allegations, which have not been investigated, and if the complaints had been investigated the subsequent offending could have been prevented.

Regarding the deliberate lies told to the Privacy Commission by the Principal and Board of Trustees of the South End School:

1. I received a visit from Deputy Principal Dallas Powell in about January 2009 to tell me that she had seen written notes made by the staff representative  regarding a Board of Trustees meeting at which the allegation had been made that I had been charged by police with an offence involving a child.  
2. Deputy Principal Dallas Powell told me that she had asked about the allegation, and been told by the Principal and other staff that local police and the Carterton Mayor had made the allegation to the Board, and that I would be receiving a letter from the Board of Trustees sacking me from my job at the school.
3. I immediately told the Deputy Principal that the allegation was completely and utterly untrue, and that contrary to the false allegation against me, I had made allegations about the three people mentioned above, which have since been validated by the subsequent violent and abusive offending which was the subject of my allegations, and which have been ignored by police.
4. I asked the Deputy Principal to convey this information to the school, and pass on my request for an immediate meeting with the Board of Trustees to correct the false information, and to confirm where the information had come from.
5. I was asked by the Deputy Principal not to come to work at the school until the matter had been resolved.  I co-operated with this request.
6. On 25 March 2009 I received the attached letter from the Board of Trustees, despite asking Deputy Principal Powell to pass on the message that the allegation was untrue.
7. I immediately made an appointment to meet with the Principal.  At this meeting I told the Principal that the allegation was completely untrue, and requested all information about me held by the school, including all notes and minutes of the Board of Trustees meeting such as those seen by Deputy Principal Powell, which she told me had been made by the staff representative at the Board meeting, which was apparently held in late 2008 or early 2009.
8. The Principal, Rod O'Leary is now deliberately lying to investigators about these matters, falsely claiming to the Privacy Commission investigator that I met with him prior to the letter being sent and told him that I had been charged by police, which is completely ridiculous and is obviously a blatant lie.  There was no meeting, prior to my receiving the letter, apart from the meeting when the Deputy Principal visited me and the allegation was made by her and soundly refuted by me, as it has been strongly and consistently refuted by me ever since.
9. The school is also lying about the existence of information, and obstructing the provision of other information, and has now made a false complaint to police.  The school has also stolen plants and equipment belonging to the Carterton Community Gardens.
10. The Mayoral Diary shows that local recidivist violent offender Mayor McPhee met with O'Leary days before a violent attack on me in my home in February, involving McPhee and Michael Murphy.  I asked McPhee and O'Leary for notes of this meeting or any other information about what was discussed, and both have refused to provide any information.
11. I advised the Privacy Commission that I have not received the complaint to police from the school, or any other information such as an incident report, or notes of the matter being discussed at a Board of Trustees meeting.  
12. The School have also denied the existence of other information such as the numerous letters from parents in support of me and letters of complaint about the actions of the Board.
13. Because these matters have been unresolved for over a year now, and because the school is deliberately lying in claiming that there had been any meeting with me prior to the letter from the Board of Trustees, and because of the recent false complaint to police, and the refusal of the school to provide information, and the theft and destruction by the school of plants and equipment belonging to our organisation, we request an immediate investigation by your office, as requested a year ago.
14. We also request an immediate investigation into the Carterton District Council and the involvement of persons associated with Council in the illegal takeover and closure of the former Carterton Community Centre, and the refusal of the PCA and IPCA to address complaints regarding these matters made by me, and supported by letters from several lawyers, and two community petitions.

Katherine Raue

Friends of the Carterton Community Centre

Transparency in New Zealand