Mowat v CBHS: The Board Minutes Achilles and 4 Police Complaints

15 April 2025. The New Zealand Reporter is a digital member of The NZ Media Council. Article: Employment Relations Authority case.

The rest of Day 3 of the Susan Mowat v Christchurch Boys’ High School Board of Trustees case would see several witnesses give evidence before Lucia Vincent, the Employment Relations Authority.

They would include Police Officer Dan Isherwood.

After resigning from the school, Mowat made an allegation of forgery with Police regarding the 2019 board minutes. Isherwood would testify that there was insufficient evidence to justify such a claim.

The writer of this article is in no way suggesting there is any merit or truth in or foundation for any allegations of criminal wrongdoing with respect to Christchurch Boys’ High School, its staff or its board. The content of this article is also not a blow-for-blow account of proceedings.

But it turned out there were three other complaints with Police.

In September 2024, The NZR wrote to Police, asking for a “summary of all complaints with respect to Christchurch Boys’ High School in the past 7 years…” and for further detail and with respect to allegations presented to The NZR by another former staff member of the school. One of them related to board minutes.

“There have been four complaints with respect to Christchurch Boys’ High School in the past seven years,” wrote O. Gulyaeva of the Police Information Team on 21 November 2024.

“Your request for details of the complaints is refused under section section 6(c) of the OIA, as the making available of the information would be likely to prejudice the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences, and the right to a fair trial; and section 9(2)(a) of the OIA, as the withholding of the information is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of deceased natural persons.”

The NZR also asked-

“Were there ever any serious concerns about authenticity of Christchurch Boys' High School board public excluded minutes made or raised to your organisation within the past five years and if so, how did your organisation investigate and address this issue, and what were your findings specifically regarding the board minutes?”

“Police have not investigated these matters as they were for the Ministry of Education to resolve,” wrote Gulyaeva.

On Day 3, Isherwood would be questioned on his and Police involvement. But first Kathryn Dalziel would re-examination Mowat once more on the 2019 public-excluded board minutes of 2019.

Her evidence would reveal her claims’ achilles heel. But this would not be a full-stop either on the hotly contested subject.

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