Preliminary results, received late on Tuesday, revealed isolated areas of fibres in dust swabs. Continue reading

The culprits who tagged obscenities across Wellington College, including a metre-high phallus on a $1.4m artificial pitch, are still yet to be caught.

However, in an apparent act of retaliation, property at St Patrick's College was also tagged last week, with the vandals signing off "WC".

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English is an old boy of St Pat's Silverstream, where he was a boarder and became head boy.

English said it was a privilege to accept the award alongside McGuinness, "who's done so much for the St Pat's and Wellington communities".

McGuinness, a construction supremo with the Wellington building firm LT McGuinness and old boy of St Pat's Town, was "very pleased" to receive the award.

By naming two former students as joint "old boys of the year" the Association has broken with long tradition.

Previous winners of the award have included Pike River Coal campaigner Bernie Monk, former Police Association president Steve Hinds, actor Jim Moriarty, trade unionist John Ryall, former All Black and David Bain campaigner Joe Karam, former Lower Hutt mayor Sir John Kennedy-Good, and Cardinal Tom Williams.

The Silverstream players dedicated their 22-20 victory to their former schoolmate Zelius Venter, a Year-10 student at the school who died this week following a mountain biking accident in Upper Hutt.

Halfback Luke Coulston said the team had put extra effort into the match to win it for Zelius, who was a promising junior rugby player himself before his fatal accident.

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Don, 44, today pleaded guilty when he appeared in Wellington District Court to eight counts of dishonestly accessing a computer system and one of money laundering.

He stole a total of $126,728.01 over the five years he was employed by St Patrick's.

Judge Chris Tuohy remanded Don on bail for sentencing on February 3.

St Patrick's College student Malcolm Pimentel wanted to bring his friend, former St Pat's student Keith Labad, but said he was told by rector Father Paul Martin that he had to bring a girl.

However, Father Martin yesterday told the Herald that the issue was not one of sex, rather that Malcolm's chosen date was an ex-pupil.

When asked whether two boys from St Patrick's could go together as each other's dates to the ball, Father Martin said: "If they were both from St Pat's that's fine."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image:mixitdj.co.nz

Acting Rector Tony Giles said a "general malaise" had affected many boys, characterised by food fights and a higher than normal number of stand-downs."Attending college traditional games is a privilege earned by adherence to the Catholic, Marist values we promote. "Unfortunately, the widespread disregard for these values means that the boys have lost the privilege on this occasion," he said.

"They've been told that if their behaviour improves they'll be allowed to attend the Rongotai fixture at Rongotai College in two weeks time," said Mr Giles

Even without their supporters, St Pats still managed to win the game thanks to a match-winning 45m penalty on fulltime to first five-eighth Aviata Silago.. The final score was 24-21

Source

• www.stuff.co.nz
• Image: AndrewGorrie/Dominion Post

David Don, the former St Patrick's College Wellington executive officer is accused of stealing money from the College over a period of four years.

According to Mr McCarthy, Don had been taking increasingly higher amounts of money allocated for specific items and using the money for his own purposes.

The annual audits did not show gaps as the final spreadsheets were balanced, McCarthy said.

Acting Rector Wayne Mills said the school was confident all the money would be recovered.

The school would now ensure all invoices were for what they stated they were, he said.

"There was an abuse of trust, and you think things put in front of you are correct and you're signing them off."

Mr McCarthy commented that the Education Ministry may need to consider changing the "scope in the brief that school auditors are given. I think any school is probably at risk that relies solely on an annual audit."

St Patrick's had now laid a formal complaint with police about the incident, after weeks of searching through school records.

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Source

• Amanda Fisher: DominionPost
• Image: Phil Reid/ DominionPost