Gay former Anglican priest Jonathan Kirkpatrick will today be sentenced for stealing more than $665,000 from Auckland's AUT University. The 53-year-old, who is the former partner of ex-MP Tim Barnett, resigned from his role as Chief Executive of AUT's Business Innovation Centre in July when a complaint was made to police about the missing money. He has pleaded guilty to seven charges including false accounting and using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage. Kirkpatrick is a former dean of St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin and was recently the priest in charge of St Albans in the Auckland suburb of Balmoral. He has been a strong gay rights advocate within the church. He was in a relationship with Barnett for 18 years, with couple moving from England to New Zealand together in 1991 when Kirkpatrick was offered a job in Christchurch. Kirkpatrick will be sentenced at 2.15PM.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 6th October 2011 - 12:37am