• A teacher at Hato Pāora College, Father Michael O’Donnell, has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for sexually abusing students.
• Kamahl Tupetagi, one of the victims, has waived his right to name suppression and spoken out about the lasting impact of the abuse.
• O’Donnell is the third staff member from the college to be convicted of historical sex crimes against students.

“Dear sir, my son Kamahl Willcocks is having a terrible time at the college he is in. When Kamahl came back for the last week of the August holidays, he was depressed and cried all the time.”

“I honestly think he is terrified of going back to Hato Pāora College.

“Please, Mr Cullen. Help my son.”

Those were the words a concerned mother penned to then-Minister of Social Welfare Michael Cullen in October 1988.

She was worried her son was being bullied by the other students at the Catholic boarding school for Māori boys, near Feilding.

But the reality was much worse.

A teacher at the school and priest, Father Michael O’Donnell, had been sexually abusing her son. O’Donnell was so persistent in his offending that even when his 13-year-old victim feigned appendicitis to get away from him, he still abused the teen in the car on the way home from the surgery and again as he lay recovering in a hospital bed.

“For nearly 37 years, I have carried the weight of this trauma – imprisoned not by walls, but by the scars left on my mind, my body, and my life,” that boy, now a man in his 50s, told the Palmerston North District Court today.

“The abuse I suffered as a child shaped every part of my existence – my education, my relationships, my mental health, my ability to work, and my sense of self-worth.

“I have survived, but I have never been free.”

That man, Kamahl Tupetagi (formerly Willcocks), has been far from silent about what happened to him at the hands of Father Michael O’Donnell, but for the first time today, he felt as if he had a voice.

Kamahl Tupetagi (formerly Willcocks) pictured at the school in 1988. 

While he shared his story of sexual abuse before with a royal commission, he has not been able to connect his own name to it since O’Donnell was criminally charged because, as a victim of sexual abuse, he’s had automatic name suppression.

Today, as his abuser was sentenced to five years and two months in prison, Tupetagi’s “cloak of invisibility” was also lifted.

He told the court how he had tried to tell anyone who would listen that O’Donnell was sexually abusing him.

Staff at the school, social workers and even the police ignored him, and he claims his written pleas for help were torn up in front of his face by staff at the school.

It wasn’t until 2018, when the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care called for victims to come forward, that Tupetagi came forward to tell his story again.

On the back of his complaint, the commission referred the matter to police. A subsequent investigation resulted in four more victims coming forward and charges being laid against O’Donnell, who pleaded guilty in February.

Father Michael O'Donnell pleaded guilty to a raft of charges stemming from his sexual abuse of students at Hato Pāora College in the 1980s. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson

Father Michael O'Donnell.

Today, at the Palmerston North District Court, Judge Bruce Northwood sentenced O’Donnell on one charge of unlawful sexual connection of a male between 12 and 16 and 15 charges of indecent assault.

The charges are representative, which means a single charge indicates multiple offences of the same type were committed in similar circumstances.

Despite having pleaded guilty, O’Donnell has maintained he doesn’t remember any of the offending but also conceded to a psychologist “maybe I did do that”.

“I do not believe you,” Judge Northwood said today.

“Unless what you did to one boy simply blurred into the others.”

Judge Northwood said that O’Donnell had control of the school tuck shop and used it as a vehicle for his offending against his five victims.

“You groomed these boys with treats and favours,” Judge Northwood said.

“The returned favour was that they would let you use their bodies for sexual purposes.”

A letter penned by Tupetagi's mother to Hon Michael Cullen in 1988.

O’Donnell, now in his mid-70s, sat impassively throughout his sentencing, supported by his family and representatives of the church in the public gallery.

However, he looked at the floor while Judge Northwood read the summary of facts, occasionally shaking his head as some of the details of the abuse were detailed.

O’Donnell is now the third Hato Pāora staff member to be convicted for historical sex crimes against students.

‘If you pleased him, you would get more and more treats’

According to the summary of facts, O’Donnell’s primary means of grooming his victims was at the school tuck shop, where he worked alongside young male students.

Tupetagi was one of these between 1987 and 1988, and O’Donnell would brush himself against him before his behaviour quickly escalated to kissing, touching or pinning the young teen against him.

O’Donnell became much bolder in his offending, unzipping his pants to expose himself and rubbing himself on his young victim.

The constant abuse caused his victim to feign appendicitis to get away from him, and he was admitted to hospital for surgery. However, O’Donnell picked him up from the hospital and molested him in the car on the way back to the school.

Then, while Tupetagi was in the school infirmary recovering from a surgery he had not needed, O’Donnell visited him and touched him under the bed covers and kissed him.

O’Donnell also abused Tupetagi in his offices, his bedroom and the school dormitories.

Another victim, who has automatic name suppression, was invited to O’Donnell’s room to talk, which escalated into the priest touching the boy under his clothing, spooning him on a bed or rubbing himself against the boy’s back.

The priest also touched the boy’s genitals, with the abuse only stopping once his victim was expelled from the school.

Father Michael O'Donnell pictured in the early 1980s.

Another victim told police how O’Donnell befriended him and let him use his rooms to study between 1986 and 1989 and would pull him close, rub his hands over his body, and touch his genitals.

Two more of his victims told police how they had begun work at the school tuck shop only for O’Donnell to rub himself against them, with one of them saying the priest pulled him onto his lap where he could feel the older man was aroused.

One of the victims had a statement read to the court and said O’Donnell had robbed him of his innocence, and since then had struggled with anxiety, depression and struggled with flashbacks of the offending.

The boy was eventually expelled from the school, which he said was subconsciously his “saving grace” to get him away from O’Donnell.

As a result, he did not know there were other victims.

“I thought I was all alone in my suffering.”

Another victim said in his statement that being chosen to work in the tuck shop was a privilege, and O’Donnell would hand out rewards to the students who pleased him.

“If you pleased him, you would get more and more treats.”

“You just had to tolerate the cuddle and kisses and sitting on his lap.”

The man said that he felt O’Donnell became more and more daring and his advances became more sexual, so he began to pull away.

“Deep in my stomach, he repulsed me.”

‘I refuse to remain silent any longer’

After Tupetagi’s mother wrote to Cullen, the minister replied saying he had followed up with the director general of social welfare about his case.

He noted that since that letter was written, the boy had been moved to a school in the South Island, closer to his family.

”This seems to meet the concerns you had in your letter,” Cullen said.

Tupetagi told the court this morning he had spent the past 37 years since O’Donnell abused him trapped in his own body, screaming for justice and survival.

“You cannot outrun nightmares. You cannot escape depression, despair, or the past. Most of all, you cannot run from yourself,” he said.

“The abuse inflicted by Michael O’Donnell has left permanent scars on my mental health, shaping every aspect of my life.

“The weight of this trauma does not fade. It affects my relationships, my ability to work, and my fundamental sense of safety.”

As a final plea to the judge, Tupetagi asked for the automatic name suppression that covers all victims of sexual abuse to be waived in his case.

“I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have spent too many years buried beneath the weight of this trauma,” he said.

“Now, I must be free to speak openly, to reclaim my voice, and to ensure that others like me are never silenced again.”

Tupetagi told NZME part of his inspiration for wanting to be able to tell his story was French woman Gisele Pelicot, who survived a decade of sexual abuse by her husband and dozens of strangers and waived her right to name suppression.

“She’s a hero, that’s real bravery,” Tupetagi said.

Gisele Pelicot was abused by her husband and dozens of strangers over a decade. Photo by Christophe Simon / AFP

“I felt like I was still behind the veil. I felt invisible because everyone knows about Michael and what he’s done, but no one knows about the victims.”

Tupetagi said he did not have a voice before now even though his name was on the record at the royal commission and his evidence was public. He was prevented from telling his full story.

He would have likely been prevented from telling that full story as well if Hato Pāora College had succeeded in its application to the court for permanent name suppression.

Because Tupetagi had already given a statement to the royal commission, under his own name and naming the school, if Hato Pāora had been granted suppression by the court, it would have meant Tupetagi would have effectively been silenced as well.

The school’s headmaster, Dr Nathan Matthews, said he was unaware this would have had an impact on the status of any of the survivors and the application was done to “try to protect our current tauira [students] and whānau”.

“I have no knowledge of the identity of the survivor you are referencing and certainly was not attempting to do anything that would adversely affect him any further,” he said.

Matthews said the school was no longer run by the Society of Mary, as it was in the 1980s, but was now operated by the diocese of Palmerston North.

In a statement released to NZME, a Society of Mary spokesperson said that despite no charges being laid in the 1980s when Tupetagi complained to police about O’Donnell, the priest was removed from his post and undertook psychological testing and training before returning to teaching.

“We deeply regret any hurt or harm caused by a member of the Society of Mary.”

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.