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Offender Databases Murray Hebberd

Murray Stewart Hebberd

Alias

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Offences

Multiple indecent assaults of six Nelson boys aged 11-13 over several years in the 1990's
Offending mostly occurred at the school of which he was the principal at the time

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none

Age

Born 1943

Current Location

At large in the Nelson region

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to five years in November 2007
Believed to have been paroled early 2011

Background
NZ Herald story here
The Press, Christchurch, October 3rd 2007
The former principal of a school in the Nelson region has admitted indecently assaulting six boys on school premises over a nine-year period.

Murray Stewart Hebberd, 64, was remanded in custody after he was convicted in the Nelson District Court on Tuesday on six charges of indecently assaulting boys aged between 11 and 13. Police prosecutor Sergeant Wayne Johnston said Hebberd's offending ended some years ago.

He said the first victim was 12-years-old when he went on a three-day school camp. The boy was lying on a dormitory bed when Hebberd went in and fondled his genitals. Johnston said that on other occasions, Hebberd allowed the boy to play video games at school and drive his car around the school grounds while he sat in the passenger seat. He indecently assaulted the boy between six and eight times on a bed in the school sick bay.

Johnston said Hebberd talked to the boy about puberty and masturbation, pulled down his underwear and masturbated him for 10 to 15 minutes, sometimes while looking at pornographic images in a magazine. Hebberd also measured the boy's erect penis using a seamstress's tape, Johnston said. Some years later, a boy aged between 12 and 13 was given permission to use the school computer, located in the main office, outside school hours two or three times a week, Johnston said.

Hebberd talked to the boy about puberty while he used the computer, and pulled his pants down so he could see and touch his genitals. Johnston said Hebberd sometimes provided the boy with pornographic magazines, and measured the boy's penis after asking him what pictures he liked. Hebberd also arranged for the boy to come to school on a Saturday, to see if he was able to ejaculate. He set up a television in a classroom, played a pornographic movie, and then masturbated the boy. The following year, Hebberd indecently assaulted two 12-year-old boys on several separate occasions.

Johnston said both boys had been working on a project on a school computer in the main office when Hebberd rubbed their genitals. He measured one boy's penis, rubbed it with solution from a medicine bottle and tried to see whether it would fit in the neck of a glass milk bottle. The next victim was an 11-year-old boy who was indecently assaulted once or twice a week during school hours in the afternoon. Johnston said Hebberd masturbated the boy, showed him images from pornographic magazines and measured his penis.

The final victim was a 12-year-old boy who was also indecently assaulted once or twice a week. Most of the assaults occured during afternoon class times, and involved Hebberd showing the boy pornographic magazines, fondling the boy's genitals and talking to him about masturbation. Johnston said Hebberd had declined to make a statement to police, and had not previously appeared in court. Defence lawyer John Sandston said Hebberd did not want to apply for bail. Hebberd's name had been supressed when he first appeared on September 19, but Sandston did not ask for supression to be continued.

Judge Joanna Maze lifted the supression order but ordered that the name of the school be suppressed, to protect Hebberd's victims. She convicted Hebberd and remanded him in custody to November 9 for sentencing.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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