Graham Capill
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Graham Capill (born 1959) is a former New Zealand Christian leader and politician. He served as the first leader of the small Christian Heritage Party, stepping down in 2003. In 2005 he was convicted of multiple sexual offences against girls under 12 years of age.
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Early life
Capill was born in western Africa, his parents being Christian missionaries. Most of his youth was spent in New Zealand, mainly in the city of Christchurch. He was educated at Middleton Grange, a large fundamentalist Protestant school in that city, where his father, Donald Capill, was Vice-Principal for most of the seventies. Capill is married, and has ten children. He has described his religious beliefs as Presbyterian by conviction, although he chose to attend an Anglican church because his own was too accepting of "false teachers and those who are sexually permissive".
Initially, Capill worked in the aviation industry, qualifying as a pilot and an avionics engineer. Later, however, Capill decided to become a minister, and studied towards a Bachelor of Divinity degree at the Reformed Theological College in Geelong, Australia. He gained his degree in 1986, and returned to New Zealand to complete an internship at Wellington before becoming a minister of the Reformed Church of Dunedin in 1988. Following his return, he also gained a law degree.
Christian Heritage Party
The Christian Heritage Party, founded in 1989, held its first convention in 1990. Capill was officially appointed the new party's leader in June of that year. He remained leader of the party through five elections, but the party failed to win any seats. Capill announced his retirement shortly after the 2002 general election, and stepped down in 2003. He was succeeded as party leader by Ewen McQueen.
Police work
After leaving politics, he was employed as a dispatcher in the Southern Communications Centre of the New Zealand Police. Within a year he had been moved to be a police prosecutor at the Christchurch District Court, but was stood down in early 2005 pending criminal charges.
Indecent assault and rape charges
On April 1, 2005 Capill pleaded guilty to a charge of indecently assaulting an eight-year old girl on four occasions. [1]. These events took place between the years of 2001 and 2002, while Capill was leader of Christian Heritage. Further charges of rape and indecent assault against girls aged under 12 (committed during the 1990s) followed. [2] [3]. As Capill had strongly condemned "sexual perversion" throughout his political career, the revelations had particular impact.
On June 28, 2005 Capill entered guilty pleas on a further three charges of indecent assault, one of rape, and one of unlawful sexual connection, all committed against girls under the age of 12. Newspaper reports now describe him as "a sexual predator", and he was remanded in custody while awaiting sentencing. On July 14 2005 Capill was sentenced to imprisonment for 9 years. [4] Prior to his sentencing, he sent an e-mail to supporters [5], asking for forgiveness and that they pray for a light sentence, also claiming that the sex with one of the young girls was "consensual". His lawyer said that the e-mail, intended to gain sympathy and support, backfired and was ill-advised. Judge Kerr said the email sent by Capill to supporters demonstrated he had yet to fully appreciate the enormity of his offending.
On August 16 he appealed the sentence to the dismay of his critics. [6] The appeal was abandoned on January 31 2006. (TV3 News)