The mother of one of several Napier teenagers convicted of raping a classmate with a broomstick in 2001 was shocked to discover him named in the new edition of Deborah Coddington's Paedophile and Sex Offender Index. Andrew Castles mother was in tears yesterday at the discovery, but was resigned to her son's future. “The boys did it, and you can't change it,” she said. Michael Bott of the Council for Civil Liberties said it was stupid to name people like Castles who were unlikely to reoffend saying “it's going to tar him with the same brush as a recidivist paedophile.” Coddington defended her decision to include Castles and the six other “Broomstick Boys”, saying that a sexual offence had been committed, thus fulfilling the criteria for inclusion. "If it was the Mongrel Mob, no one would question whether they were in there. If it was a young female victim, no one would question it either."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 18th September 2003 - 12:00pm