The Southland Times
November 1 2008

Teacher's life 'destroyed' by abuse claims
Wariness has replaced passion for classroom

JOHN HAWKINS/Southland Times

BACK ON THE FARM: Paul Conner walking two greyhounds he trains on his property near Invercargill after being cleared of indecency charges against two boys.

An Invercargill teacher cleared of doing indecent acts on two former pupils said his life had been destroyed by the allegations.

Paul Conner was yesterday training greyhounds on his Bainfield Rd property after a jury found him not guilty on Thursday of four charges of doing indecent acts on two boys.

Mr Conner, a teacher at New River Primary School when the allegations surfaced a year ago, said he had invited the boys to his property to do work in the school holidays for a wage, as he had done with other pupils in the past.

They played hide and seek during mid-morning breaks, with the boys claiming Mr Conner touched their private parts and rubbed up against them.

Mr Conner said yesterday the games were a stupid mistake: "It was a harmless thing that seemed fun at the time ... but I didn't see anything like this coming."

It had highlighted how careful adults needed to be when they were alone around children, he said.

"This has absolutely destroyed my life. There isn't a day that I don't get up and try to figure out how it could have arrived at this because it simply didn't happen."

President of the Southland Greyhound Racing Club, he said support from family and friends had kept him going. No other allegations had been made against him in his 22 years of teaching.

He was not rushing into making a decision on his future.

"I haven't absolutely shut the door on teaching ... teaching was a passion but this has made me wary of it."

New River Primary School's hierarchy had given him next-to-no support during the past year, which disappointed him, Mr Conner said.

School principal Elaine McCambridge declined to comment, as did school board spokesman Simon Ayto.

Police case officer Detective Greg Baird said he stood by the "thorough" investigation into the allegations against Conner.

The families of the two boys at the centre of the allegations declined to comment yesterday.