North Harbour Hockey Association fires woman who blew whistle on alleged teen sex abuse
The North Harbour Hockey Association has dismissed a staff member who acted as a whistleblower regarding the organization's failure to report alleged sexual abuse of teenagers to the police. The association claims the firing was due to the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.
Why it matters
This case highlights the ethical and legal tensions between organizational confidentiality policies and the duty to report child abuse to authorities.
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The National Hockey Centre at North Harbour.
The North Harbour Hockey Association has fired a woman who blew the whistle after the organisation would not help two teenage girls report a staff member’s alleged sexual abuse to police.
The woman’s daughter is one of the teens allegedly indecently assaulted by a former association employee, who has been charged with abusing two girls , one of whom was under 16.
The organisation claims the woman’s dismissal related to alleged misuse of confidential information, “including how that information was disclosed to the media”.
Hayley*, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said she made a whistleblower complaint to the board chairman verbally last year and in writing earlier this year after learning how the situation was handled and the association’s decision not to report the alleged sex offender to police.
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