The Palmerston North student teacher who allegedly targeted his own pupils had several complaints of inappropriate behaviour referred to police before he began his teaching programme.
However Massey University confirms these issues weren't raised during his acceptance - despite the police vetting process.
On Wednesday ex-Palmerston North Number One Shoes employee Malachai Wylie appeared in the Palmerston North District Court.
He was discharged without conviction after pleading guilty to two counts of offensive behaviour and one of theft after he stole, sniffed, spat and ejaculated in female customers' shoes.
A Newshub investigation earlier in May revealed how Wylie had been running a network of porn, fetish and Facebook pages, soliciting and posting images from as many as 250 teen girls.
While studying to be a secondary school teacher at Massey University in Palmerston North last year, Wylie worked as a student teacher in at least two Manawatu high schools. Several of his students have since come forward, alleging that during this period Wylie targeted them and used fake profiles to ask for their photos.
The Ministry of Education deployed traumatic incident teams to the affected schools - a spokesperson noting the "position of trust" held by Wylie would amplify the distressing nature of the situation.
Now Newshub can reveal that several complaints against Wylie had been referred to Police before he was accepted into the teaching programme.
Massey University
On the surface, Wylie appeared like he'd make a good teacher. The former deputy head boy was athletic, friendly and charming - even writing in Year 13 he hoped to open a dance school.
But he hid a dark side - a pattern of inappropriate behaviour towards young women.
Before applying to Massey University's teaching programme, Wylie was studying towards another Massey qualification. Several young women have come forward to tell Newshub that during this period Wylie made them feel scared and uncomfortable.
One told Newshub Wylie followed her around the university library every day "for at least a few weeks straight" then began trying to touch her feet.
"At this point I lost it and told him to leave me alone. I didn't go to the library for a good month as I was so scared," she said.
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Newshub has seen videos allegedly taken in Massey's library by Wylie as he secretly filmed young women.
Newshub is aware of other incidents which allegedly occurred during Wylie's time at Massey accommodation.
Massey confirmed it was aware incidents had occurred and said it had sent them on to police.
In a statement to Newshub, Vice-Chancellor Professor Jan Thomas told Newshub: "In this case, we had received several complaints of inappropriate behaviour on campus, which had been referred to Police and managed in accordance with our processes."
And Newshub is aware from a court statement of facts that Wylie has appeared in court in the past.
Acceptance to teaching programme
Massey University says the selection process for entry to teacher education programmes must meet the requirements set down by the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. These include a police vetting for a vulnerable children's worker and disclosure of criminal convictions or charges pending.
During the vetting process, police can also reveal any concerns they have, including any information they've received and any interaction a person has had with police - even if the person hasn't been charged, has had charges withdrawn, has been acquitted, or discharged without conviction.
However despite the fact several complaints of inappropriate behaviour had been referred to police, Massey University confirms no issues were raised during the vetting process for his entry to the teaching qualification.
Nor were these issues able to be raised under any internal university complaint or checking process.
"Massey does not have an internal system or database for running checks on students for the purposes of teacher education vetting. In this case it is unfortunate that the issues weren't passed on to the Institute of Education," Vice-Chancellor Thomas told Newshub.
A police spokesperson declined to say what police did to follow up on the complaints against Wylie, and why these issues weren't reported to Massey during the police vetting process.
"In general Police is unable to respond to queries which seek to establish whether a specific individual is or has been the subject of a police complaint or investigation," they said.
Bankside Chambers education law expert John Hannan says there are a set of specified offences which police must "definitely reveal" for employment in the education sector. These include crimes like sexual assaults, murder, injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and dealing in slaves.
But for something like a complaint of offensive behaviour, police don't necessarily have to reveal it. It would depend on what police were told and what they followed up on and whether they considered it relevant to the employment.
"The point is it depends upon what sort of interaction, if any, he had with police after the Massey incident," he tells Newshub.
"They may have referred him to police, but if for whatever reason the police weren't able to look into these matters or didn't look into these matters then police would have nothing to go on during the police vetting process."
Hannan says there's also a bit of judgement that may be exercised, including in investigations that don't result in prosecution.
"If there was information within the police systems, but it wasn't apparently relevant in some way to employment as a secondary school teacher, police could exercise their judgement and not disclose it," he says.
"The Vice-Chancellor says it was referred to police but we don't know what, if anything, police found out. Maybe the investigation wasn't pursued, maybe they didn’t or couldn’t identify him properly.
"I would say if police spoke to him, ID'd him and decided not to charge him, I would have found it a little surprising that whoever was doing the vet didn't raise this when they were doing the vet. But we just don't know if anything was in the system for whoever was doing the vet to discover."
Changes to policies
Vice-Chancellor Thomas says Massey University has recently developed a Harmful Sexual Behaviour Policy, which was developed in consultation with staff and students.
"Harmful sexual behaviour is a serious problem that needs attention and intervention throughout society and within institutions. It has a significant impact on survivors and their whānau, and we know that university populations are more likely to be affected. It's important that as a university we are clear and specific about harm prevention and management," she told Newshub in a statement.
"We are reviewing this situation to see how we could have done better, and to ensure we do the right thing by our students, staff and community. All students and staff should feel that they are safe at university."
Regarding teacher vetting, Hannan thinks the legislation is working, and he prefers a system where police can exercise their judgement about what is disclosed during a vetting process, beyond the specified offences.
"A person wouldn't want to live in a society where each and every interaction we've had with police would have to be reported to an employer who puts candidates through a police vetting process," he tells Newshub.
"I don't think there's a gap in the legislation. Over the last 20-30 years the requirements with respect to the vetting of education sector employees have been hugely ramped up and enhanced and you have to ask to what extent do we want to institute more rigorous vetting with zero discretion to not report apparently irrelevant information?"
