A former colleague of an Auckland youth worker, who was convicted of sex offences in February, has claimed he was sacked from his role at a New Zealand ministry after allegations of inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature in relation to multiple girls in his care.

However, the Herald understands the allegations from the vulnerable youths at Crosspower Ministries were never reported to police at the girls’ request.

Fale McCarthy’s ex-wife, Anasha Temita, has echoed the claims, telling the Herald he lost his role at South Auckland-based Crosspower Ministries after a number of teenage girls came forward with allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

The Herald understands McCarthy forcibly kissed two teen girls in his care and attempted to meet up with another outside the scope of his work with the ministry.

“At the time, it was all very overwhelming, devastating and I was unsure of what to do,” Temita said.

“I had already been hiding so much from my family as I knew they would be irate and horrified to learn of these incidents so I kept it from them. I trusted my church leadership at the time to help guide us on what to do.”

The fresh allegations have come to light after police investigated McCarthy’s claims in court he had a new job with the Uniting Church in Melbourne – a prospect that was successfully used as justification in court for escaping detention in New Zealand.

Initially the church completely denied they had ever known McCarthy, but have now clarified to the Herald that he was emailed a job offer on February 20, 2025, on the basis of a completion of an Australian National Criminal History Check.

“I can confirm that Fale did not disclose his convictions to the congregation who interviewed him,” Uniting Church communications manager Karin Kleynhans said.

“We retracted the job offer when we found out about his sentencing.”

On February 27, McCarthy was sentenced over the indecent assault of two women in 2014. He received nine months’ supervision, 100 hours of community work and $1000 emotional harm reparations to each of his victims.

The 39-year-old Australian man failed to get a discharge without conviction but was successful in convincing Judge David Sharp he should not be sentenced to a jail term or home detention because he needed to return to Melbourne to his partner and child.

McCarthy’s new lawyer, Jen Holden, has also confirmed an appeal against conviction and sentence has been lodged with the Court of Appeal after his trial and sentencing.

McCarthy refused to comment on claims of sexually abusing youths at Crosspower Ministries and being dismissed from his employment.

Following McCarthy’s conviction a former staffer at Crosspower Ministries – which disbanded in 2017 – has come forward claiming he was sacked over several incidents with teen girls.

“Fale is incredibly calculative and has been offending for years. The fact that he is still using that same sick line about the money bet [to his victims, described in sentencing] is disgusting. He is a risk to society and should be in jail,” the former colleague claimed.

Part of McCarthy’s role at Crosspower Ministries was to mentor and teach dance to about 50 teens in the South Auckland area.

Fale McCarthy at the time he was working at Crosspower Ministries teaching dance to disadvantaged youth. Photo supplied

The colleague said allegations emerged when multiple teen girls came forward to the management of the ministry in 2012.

The former Crosspower Ministries worker said management only found out about the allegations a year after they happened. The worker claims they then spoke to each of the girls, who all said they didn’t want to press charges or go to the police.

“This was something we said we would do even if it meant Crosspower closing down as they didn’t want us to get in trouble because of Fale’s actions,” the ex-colleague said.

“Fale was automatically stood down and did not come back to Crosspower after these allegations came to light.”

The founder and former owner of Crosspower Ministries, Sully Paea, had the claims of McCarthy put to him by the Herald. Paea indicated via a spokesperson that he could not recall the “staff situation properly at Crosspower as he wasn’t in charge at the time. There was another general manager”.

NZ Police have also told the Herald they investigated McCarthy’s claim in court that he had been offered new employment as a youth worker with the Uniting Church in Melbourne and that the church was aware of his convictions.

“Police made further inquiries with the church, and established there had been a job offer that was later withdrawn at the time of the verdict,” a police spokesman said.

“As such, no further action is currently being taken on this matter.”

Conviction is a ‘small and lacklustre’ win

One of McCarthy’s 2014 victims spoke to the Herald about the impact of McCarthy’s offending on her, in which he sucked her toes in exchange for money as part of a “ruse to take advantage of [her] vulnerability”.

The victim claims far more serious allegations against McCarthy never made it to court.

“I believe I tried everything within my control to fight against this monster and if the system couldn’t hear the fight, hurt and trauma behind all of it and give what was due ... then I’ll take the conviction because that’s a black mark for the rest of his life against his name,” said the woman, who has name suppression.

McCarthy admitted the charge of indecent assault against his 16-year-old victim in December 2014.

Before the assault, McCarthy asked the 16-year-old if her mother read her messages, to which she said “no”.

Judge Sharp said this reflected a degree of “premeditation” in the offending.

“You told her you had a bet with other friends whereby the first person to film themselves sucking another person’s toes would win the pot [of money],” Judge Sharp described in court.

“She agreed because she wanted money as promised by yourself. You took her into her older brother’s room, took off her shoes and socks and began to suck her toes for around three minutes.

“Then you hugged her from behind and said ‘thank you’.”

His victim has described McCarthy as “extremely dangerous” and a “predator” who demonstrated no remorse in his attempts to obtain a discharge without conviction.

She cites the multiple allegations against McCarthy that did not become charges as evidence of much more widespread offending.

“Twenty-two women went to the police but because he operated in the ‘grey’ areas of sexual/indecent assault, many of the testimonies were inadmissible which was incredibly heartbreaking,” she claimed.

McCarthy was also convicted of another indecent assault in July 2014 against another woman – a charge he did not plead guilty to.

McCarthy was out drinking with a group of people and got in a car with the victim, who was “heavily intoxicated”, and two others.

The woman fell asleep and woke up about 15 minutes later with her head on McCarthy’s lap.

McCarthy moved his hand up the woman’s bare thigh under her skirt and “squeezed just short of the bottom” and then moved his hand and began to stick his fingers beneath her underwear and “attempted to touch [the woman’s] bare genitalia”.

McCarthy initially faced several other charges for historic sexual offending against women in Auckland – some of which did not go to trial.

While disheartened by the level of McCarthy’s sentence, his victim expressed relief after many years of struggle.

“I’m one to count my blessings and be grateful for what is out of my control,” she said.

“I would’ve hoped for at least home detention, but the fact that he quite possibly could return to Melbourne to work in the industry that he does, with vulnerable women and youth, is incredibly disappointing.”

But she said the sentence “as small and lacklustre as it was, was still a win in my eyes” due to the accompanying criminal conviction.

Tom Dillane is an Auckland-based journalist covering local government and crime as well as sports investigations. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is deputy head of news.