Former ACT party president Tim Jago abandoned his two-year fight for ongoing name suppression on Friday Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
One of the men sexually abused as a teenager by former ACT party president Tim Jago says it is a relief he has finally been named.
Jago was found guilty of abusing two teenage boys he knew through a sports club in the 1990s after a week-long jury trial in Auckland last year.
After two years battling to keep his name secret, Jago abandoned this fight for ongoing name suppression on Friday - paving the way for one of the survivors to identify themselves too.
Paul Oliver has taken the unusual step of applying to waive his automatic name suppression so he can openly talk about his experiences.
"It's definitely lifted a burden, a portion of the shame and the guilt that I carried," he told RNZ.
Oliver was a teenage boy - Jago a mentor figure at their local sports club - when he assaulted him - twice - in the 1990s.
He has long felt the impact of the abuse and thought he'd buried it in the past until he saw Jago's name pop up in a news article a few years ago.
"I caught the name and couldn't figure that it was the same individual..I did a quick Google and saw that this was the same individual.
"I felt the wash of being triggered, having what I understand is a bit of a PTSD response."
It was after this that Oliver went to the police.
Two years later, Jago is convicted, serving a jail sentence, and Oliver is being talked about in male survivor peer support groups.
Advocate Ken Clearwater had a meeting just last night.
"It was awesome actually, the guys talked about Paul being on telly and the courage he had and stuff like that so they were pretty proud of him."
Clearwater said it wasn't easy talking about being abused, let alone going through the justice system.
"There's so much shame that goes with it. I know how difficult it is for females, but for males, we grow up in that patriarchal system. We're supposed to be tough and strong and all that sort of thing.
"So that shame that goes with that and the guilt and the fear of going speaking out, not knowing whether you're going to be believed, and then have to go through the especially through the police interviews and stuff like that. It's pretty harrowing."
Clearwater said the most important thing for survivors was being able to talk to someone they could trust.
"Usually that's what it takes. We've grown up in a world where men don't speak out, like you just keep your mouth shut, whereas in reality our strength is in speaking out."
Paul Oliver and his wife Lauren. Photo: Supplied
Paul Oliver said that was his message for others.
"I really want to express to others that you can heal, you can move forward...you don't have to take let it burden your life and its entirety.
"If I can provide support for others by speaking about my experience and the pain and shame of not speaking...if they can unburden themselves of that and and work through it, I just would love to support that."
Jago maintains his innocence - and still plans on appealing his convictions and sentence - something Oliver said makes it harder to move on.
"It's saddening. I'm very much on the side of wanting to see people own their actions and learn and choose to rehabilitate and to show remorse.
"With that, I could look at it in a more forgiving manner but at this point I can't deny the fact that there's an appeal."
For now, relatives of the second survivor abused by Tim Jago are in the process of writing to the sports club, asking for his name to be removed from its records.
They say he did a lot of good for the club but he's "undone the whole lot" and wiping his name is the least the club can do to help the community move on.
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