Jonathan Kirkpatrick AUT fraudster Jonathan Kirkpatrick is facing the reality of life behind bars after instructing his lawyer not to seek home detention, saying he no longer wants to rely on the kindness of his friends and wishes to face up to what he has done. The 53-year-old was yesterday sentenced to three years and two months jail, receiving discounts from a starting point of five years for his early guilty plea and a number of other mitigating factors, such as his early admission of wrongdoing to AUT and help with the investigation, along with his attempt at reparation. Over a period of eight years the gay former Anglican priest stole more than $665,000 from AUT, where he was the head of the Business Innovation Centre. He channelled the money into his own companies, for work that was never done, signing 82 invoices in all. Defence lawyer Russell Fairbrother told the court Kirkpatrick did not want him to seek a home detention sentence. "He has approached today with incredible trepidation as being a gay man, and he is openly gay, with his experience of being a priest, the thoughts that run through his mind about what will happen when he walks through a cell door are rampant," Fairbrother told the court. The Crown cited the breach of trust by someone in a high position as one of the key aggravating factors, along with the substantial losses the university suffered. "Theft of this kind by someone using his position of trust has breached trust that hurt is quite deep and will be hard to overcome for the organisation - the trust he was given and the respect he held and the period of time he remained undetected," Crown lawyer Rachel Reed said. She said the money was "frittered away" on the lifestyle of someone who had a good salary from AUT, which for most people would be plenty. "This is a man who had no need to steal but obviously had tastes beyond his salary means," she said. Documents showed Kirkpatrick spent some of the stolen money on a luxury car, holidays, wine and food, while income tax and GST was also paid upon it, oddly making the Crown a beneficiary of his theft, a factor Judge Alison Sinclair remarked upon as being rather rare with this type of offending. Kirkpatrick has arranged to pay reparation of $20,000 from the sale of his home, though whether that sale was voluntary was a matter of debate as it was the subject of a caveat and the judge has added the $20,000 reparations to his sentence. "He would like to make good the harm he has done he is simply not in a position to be able to do that," his lawyer, Fairbrother, explained. Judge Sinclair agreed with the Crown that the amount was only "a drop in the ocean" considering the overall losses Kirkpatrick has incurred. She cited a number of references where referees talked highly of his work as a priest and expressed disappointment and surprise he was before the court on such offending. The judge pointed out that while he had admitted his offending, Kirkpatrick offered nothing in way of explanation for it. "That behaviour was set to eventually destroy the success you’ve had over the years leaving you with nothing,” she said, while adding she needed to hold accountable, denounce his offending and give him a sentence that would act as a deterrent. 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 former labour MP Tim Barnett for 18 years, with couple moving from England to New Zealand together in 1991 when Kirkpatrick was offered a job in Christchurch. The couple eventually broke up and in 2007 he entered into a civil union. While working at AUT and as a voluntary priest, he was also running a Thai restaurant with his partner. The couple is now estranged, however his partner agreed to the sale of a property in order to pay the $20,000 reparations.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 7th October 2011 - 11:08am