Former Far North teacher James Parker pleaded guilty to a further seven offences involving boys when he appeared in the Whangārei District Court by audio-visual link on Monday. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
A former Northland teacher jailed 12 years ago for sex offences against boys has pleaded guilty to seven new charges arising from the same period as the original offending.
James Robertson Parker was convicted in 2013 of 74 charges, including sexual violation and indecent acts, occurring when he was a teacher and later deputy principal of a small rural school in the Far North.
The 20 victims were boys aged nine to 16 at the time.
On Monday afternoon, Parker was back in court in Whangārei, appearing before Judge Taryn Bayley by audio-visual link from a South Island prison.
The 49-year-old pleaded guilty to seven of the nine new charges laid late last year after another victim came forward.
Crown lawyer Pedro Hambler said the two remaining charges would be withdrawn once Parker had been sentenced on the new charges.
Judge Bayley sought a pre-sentence report and set a sentencing date of 25 June.
She said Parker would attend the roughly 90-minute sentencing in person.
The offences on which Parker was convicted in 2013 occurred between 1999 and 2012, mostly during overnight stays at his farm in Awanui, near Kaitāia.
He was sentenced to a term of preventive detention, which means he can be released only when the Parole Board deems he is no longer a risk.
Court documents show the new charges stem from offences that occurred during part of the same time period, 2009-12.
Parker was declined parole for the fourth time just last month.
He told the board he would live in the South Island when he was eventually released, and hoped to find a work in the outdoors such as farming.
He accepted he would never teach again and could not have any kind of employment that gave him access to children.
During his original sentencing in the Kaitāia District Court, the Crown said the damage Parker had done to his victims and the wider community was "incalculable".
Justice Paul Heath said Parker's actions had damaged the trust not only of his pupils and their families, but potentially the trust all parents placed in teachers.
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