The former deputy principal of a prestigious private school says she waited almost a year for an investigation report into allegations against her, which she claims put her career at risk and her life on hold.

Yevette Williams is suing St Peter’s School Cambridge for the delay in receiving the report, the findings of which are suppressed. The contents, including details of the allegations, are also suppressed.

However, St Peter’s School Trust Board chairman John Macaskill-Smith told an Employment Relations Authority hearing in Hamilton this month the school did not deliberately delay the report and he believed its completion was crucial to the school moving forward.

Former St Peter's School Cambridge deputy principal Yevette Williams. Photo / Supplied

Yevette Williams was one of six deputy principals and her husband, Dale Burden, was executive principal at St Peter’s in early 2021 when an anonymous complaint of bullying behaviour at the elite Waikato school was made to WorkSafe.

Burden was suspended on full pay while WorkSafe investigated and Williams’ absence from the school was unexplained. The couple’s daughter also attended the school.

The school Trust Board launched two independent investigations, first by an employment lawyer and then by former Chief Employment Court Judge Graeme Colgan, who was hired in April that year.

Dale Burden resigned from St Peter's School in Cambridge last year while WorkSafe and independent investigators were looking into claims of bullying. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Burden resigned in late May and Colgan’s investigation was expanded to include allegations against Williams. The report was initially expected on June 11 but was still not completed by the end of July.

It would take until May 2022, some nine months later, before the full report was finished and after proceedings for compliance and alleged breaches were filed with the authority by Williams’ lawyer.

While Williams awaited the report she resigned from St Peter’s, on August 2, 2021. Details of the settlement are suppressed.

At the time the Trust Board issued a statement saying Williams had resigned to do a PhD programme in education leadership, and it wished her well for the future, thanking her for her “dedication, hard work and input, particularly in the areas of teaching and learning and curriculum development”.

St Peter's School Cambridge board chairman John Macaskill-Smith told the ERA the board did not delay the investigation report. Photo / Mike Scott

Williams’ lawyer, Erin Burke, told the authority she believed that if her client had remained suspended on full pay, as she had been between April and August 2021, the report would not have been delayed so long because St Peter’s would have been motivated by an ongoing salary cost.

Williams said she did not want to raise concerns with Colgan about the delay for fear of a negative outcome.

She told the ERA the delay significantly impacted her because the allegations against her husband coupled with her absence from school and later their resignations were the subject of widespread media reporting.

She believed she could not secure work without being able to explain the outcome of the investigation, and has not had another job since.

In sometimes emotional testimony, Williams told the hearing in most applications for a teaching job an employer asked if the applicant had ever been subject to an investigation and, if so, what the outcome was.

She said without the report she had to withdraw from several job applications and the ongoing delay began to take a toll.

“After the mediation I resigned and I feel as soon as I was no longer employed by the school the matter was no longer given priority by the school.”

Former Chief Employment Court Judge Graeme Colgan's report took almost a year to complete. Photo / Supplied

Burke emailed Colgan several times for updates in 2021 before threatening litigation on September 22.

Colgan said there were personal reasons for the delay and that he had “capacity issues” with a backlog of work.

In October Colgan gave Williams a summary of his findings and the Teaching Council took no further action.

Burke told the ERA the summary findings made it even more valuable and urgent for Williams to have the final report.

St Peter’s continued to intermittently inquire with Colgan about the report but it wasn’t until the following year the school expressed any urgency in its communications with the retired judge.

Colgan told the ERA at a hearing in February he believed completion of the report by June 11, 2021, was never realistic.

He denied there was a sense of urgency conveyed by St Peter’s lawyers in their communication with him but one of a need to make progress.

However, Colgan said the investigation was “detailed and complex” for a variety of reasons, including that he believed the employment lawyer’s investigation had made school staff wary and, although this didn’t cause the delay, it “impacted the process” leading to an extension.

He claimed an investigation could not be “hastened at the expense of natural justice”.

When the report failed to materialise St Peter’s said it considered legal action against Colgan. It also withheld further payment as leverage.

On April 8, 2022, Burke emailed Colgan with a second threat of litigation.

Colgan said she would have the report immediately prior to Easter on April 14. On April 19 there was no report and Burke filed in the authority seeking compliance by St Peter’s and alleging three breaches against the school of the settlement agreement.

She received the draft report on May 1 and withdrew the action for compliance orders but claimed the school breached the settlement, seeking a total of $60,000 in penalties.

The school made two counterclaims, the details of which are suppressed.

The school also claimed Williams never raised her concerns before making the threat of litigation but Burke said there was no onus on Williams to chase St Peter’s for the report.

The determination of authority member Nicola Craig is reserved.

- Natalie Akoorie, Open Justice