A sickening three-decade-long string of sexual offences against often vulnerable boys has been documented in a High Court judgement of the crimes of a man who committed his offences in Dunedin, Palmerston and other sites around Otago.
The full judgement of Leonard James Mulholland (72) was released yesterday, after an initial oral version was handed down at the court in Dunedin in March.
In his oral judgement, Justice David Gendall ruled Mulholland had dementia, and was not fit to stand trial.
He was detained as a patient under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment Act) 1992, by way of a community treatment order.
The full judgement tells of 10 victims, whose families Mulholland often befriended through his work at a washing machine repair shop in Dunedin.
It details a disturbing pattern of befriending boys, lavishing attention and money on them, then abusing them, with his offences including sodomy.
Mulholland set up a ''smoko room'' with sofas, a television and video player at his business to entertain his victims.
The judgement also shows the damaging effects later in the victim's lives, the hold Mulholland had on them, and their self-blame even years later.
A table of 95 offences, the majority of which Justice Gendall found Mulholland had ''on the balance of probabilities'' committed, shows locations from Middlemarch to Palmerston: the Tomahawk Lagoon car park; John Wilson Ocean Dr; Smaills Beach; the Cargill monument; a rest area on the Pigroot; and another on the Kilmog.
Between 1964 and 1996, Mulholland worked as a washing machine salesman and service man in Dunedin.
In 1996 he was convicted on three charges of indecent assault on two boys aged 12 and 16 years old.
About that time he moved to Palmerston, where he continued to work until his retirement.
The offending before the court was from the period between 1980 and 2010.
In one case Mulholland began dating a victim's mother after she began working at the repair shop.
He became a father figure to the 11-year-old boy, offered him rides on a go-kart and taught him to ride a motorbike.
The abuse began after he gained the trust of the mother, and occurred ''over a lengthy period''.
Another victim was 12 when Mulholland began associating with his Dunedin family, which was struggling financially.
He paid for ''various items'', invited the boy to his home for school holidays, and began the abuse.
There were similar stories with all the victims, and after Mulholland set up the smoko room at his business in 1988, he had ''boys hanging out during and after school''.
One victim was introduced to him by another.
Mulholland stalked one of the boys who stopped associating with him, and caused a break-up with the victim's girlfriend.
To another he claimed he was worth $50 million, and told the boy he would inherit the money.
The former wife of one victim questioned her then husband why he associated with a man who had molested him as a boy.
He told her he ''owed Mr Mulholland'', that Mulholland was there for him when nobody else was, and that ''being sexually abused was all his fault''.
On his reasons for ruling Mulholland unfit for trial, the judgement noted a medical report that said he had vascular-type dementia, ''as well as a diagnosis of longstanding paranoid personality disorder''.
''This latter diagnosis inclines Mr Mulholland to being pervasively suspicious, mistrusting of others, hypersensitive to danger'' as well as ''isolative'' and more ready to perceive the actions of others as hostile.
A second report noted his ''delusional beliefs regarding the military''.
Justice Gendall ruled Mulholland's mental condition had ''deteriorated to such a point that he is completely unfit to stand trial, and will never be fit to do so''.
While defence counsel had called for Mulholland to be released, Justice Gendall said detention under the Mental Health Act ''recognises the seriousness of the offending, the harm caused, and the views of the victims''.
It was ''strongly recommended'' Mulholland be detained in a secure aged care facility.
