The former political figure arrives at court. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
A prominent former political figure has been found guilty on eight charges of indecent assault dating back to the 1990s.
The man has been on trial in the Auckland District Court for sexually abusing two teenage boys in West Auckland and Waikato.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment.
The man has had name suppression for the duration of the trial, but it can be reported he is not an MP.
Judge David Sharp has allowed him 14 days of continued name suppression to determine whether a permanent application for name suppression will be made.
Both the crown and media opposed continued name suppression, with prosecutor Rebeckah Thompson arguing the need to maintain fair trial rights had passed.
At the time of the abuse, the man was a mentor to the two teenage boys at a sports club in West Auckland.
Delivering the Crown's closing statements last week, Thompson said the man had an interest in teenage boys and supplied them with alcohol and drugs.
"[The defendant], a man in his late 20s or early 30s at the time, had an interest in adolescent boys and the accounts of [the first complainant] and [the second complainant] tell us that he was prepared to act on that attraction in very similar ways.
"Supplying them with alcohol, encouraging them with the consumption of alcohol and taking advantage of them when they had succumb to its effects."
Thompson said the defence's suggestion the complainants had misremembered what had happened did not stack up.
"Important, significant, traumatic things like that; you remember them. You remember as a teenage boy an adult man touching your penis. That's not something you just imagine or misinterpret."
The man will be sentenced on 22 November.
