By Radio New Zealand
Alosio Taimo, the Auckland rugby coach found guilty of 95 sex charges, has been sentenced to 22 years imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years.
Alosio Taimo on trial in the Auckland High Court. Photo: RNZ / Edward Gay
In October, Taimo was found guilty of 95 of the 106 charges against him for sexually abusing boys.
The jury returned with their verdicts after 17 hours of deliberations.
The 55-year-old was originally charged with offending against one boy in August 2016.
The boy’s aunt had overheard him telling his cousins that Taimo was gay and that he knew this because Taimo had touched him.
She went to police who investigated and identified more complainants.
The number of complainants grew again after Taimo’s name suppression was lifted and his identity published in the media.
The 106 charges laid by the Crown spanned nearly 30 years, with the youngest complainant just nine-years-old at the time of the offending.
During the nine-week trial, Crown prosecutor Jasper Rhodes argued Taimo sexually abused boys at his job at McDonald’s where he worked as a manager, at a school where he later worked as a teacher aide and in his own home and car, amongst others.
As well as hearing evidence given by complainants, the jury were shown a photograph of a boy sitting topless on Taimo’s bed, stored in his cellphone called ‘family and forever’.
The jury were also told about, but not shown, an explicit close-up photo of a young teenager performing a sex act on a man – also found on Mr Taimo’s cellphone.
The face of the male can’t be seen but the Crown told the jury they could infer it was Taimo – based on the fact the photo was on his phone, and that fabric seen in it was similar to distinctive bedding seen in police photographs of his home.
Taimo’s defence was that each of the complainants had lied.
This article is republished under Kaniva’s partnership agreement with Radio New Zealand.
