New Zealand MPs hanging out with notorious criminals is meant to be big news, right? If so, then it’s always been perplexing why media never had the same drive to cover ACT Party leader & Deputy PM David Seymour’s relationship with former ACT Party president and convicted pedophile Timothy Jago.
I published two threads covering the story when Jago’s name suppression was lifted back in early 2025 (Part 1 / Part 2), but in short, Timothy Jago was selected by ACT leader David Seymour to be the party’s president in May 2019. Jago had been at Muriwai’s Surf Life Saving (SLS) club in various roles for decades, alongside a spotty CV of mostly sports charity and non-profit work.
In mid-2020, Jago as president helped the party cover up a major scandal in its youth wing, Prebble’s Rebels, including allegations of a culture of sexual harassment and abuse. That year’s October 2020 election also saw ACT go from one MP (Seymour) to 10, the party’s best ever result.
Jago remained ACT’s president until he mysteriously resigned in January 2023. What was not allowed to be reported due to name suppression was that he’d been charged by police with assaulting two teenage boys in the 1990s through the Muriwai SLS club. Jago had been initially investigated back in 1999 after the second victim went to police, but the investigation was dropped.
Jago’s lawyer argued that the ‘political dimensions’ of the case mandated full name suppression (which would end after the 2023 election), which the judge granted. In her judgement she wrote:
“I accept the publication of the applicant’s name […] against the backdrop of his former role in a prominent political party would very likely result in the case becoming the subject of intense media interest, and a political football … This is particularly the case in election year.”
Instead, all stories about Jago, his charges, and his trial had to describe him as a “former political figure”, and could not mention his employer, the ACT Party, who had continued to employ him for months after they first found out about the accusations.
Indeed, after Jago was found guilty in mid-2024 on all 8 charges, it was reported that ACT’s David Seymour (still then under name suppression) was informed by a victim’s wife about Jago two months before he was officially charged. Seymour messaged back, asking them to contact an employment lawyer to handle it in-house, before the partner later indicated she would instead be contacting the police. Seymour then didn’t fire Jago, with him instead resigning two months later in January when charges were officially laid.
After being convicted in mid-2024, Jago dropped his bid for permanent name suppression in February 2025. It was timed to cause the least possible trouble for Seymour and the ACT Party, dropped just after Parliament went into recess for what would be a tumultuous Waitangi Day break.
Seymour did receive some heat for the Jago scandal, albeit only lasting a few days and overshadowed by other stunts he pulled as distractions, like driving a Range Rover onto Parliament’s steps and revealing his proposal to Auckland property agent Alexandra Vincent Martelli (who’s now rumoured to have indefinitely postponed their wedding).
When questioned on Jago’s hiring by The Press, Seymour said that it was “important to recognise [that] this offending took place 20-years plus, before he was engaged with the party”, and that ‘his relationship with Jago was professional, and he had not been in contact with him for years’.
This photo of Seymour at Jago’s was taken at the end of 2020, a year when rumours about Jago’s pedophilia had been circulating throughout the youth wing, and after Jago swept up the Prebble’s Rebels sexual harassment scandal.
According to some sources, Jago was also already notorious within life saving circles and on the West Coast, and he’d been quietly sidelined in the Muriwai club from the mid-2010s onwards due to the allegations. Seymour would likely have known Jago took frequent trips to places like Pakistan or Uganda on lifeguard training junkets.
Or, maybe Jago mentioned to Seymour his prized boat, “Ruffiano” (Italian for “procurer/pimp, bootlicker, sychophant, hanger-on”).
Considering Seymour’s position as the long-time face of ACT, it’s hard to imagine that no one ever approached him with this information. Whether or not he heard these allegations, he still made time for that December 2020 party.
You can read the previous two threads below. Not included in either thread: on July 2026, Jago pled guilty to historic charges of sexual assault laid by a third victim. After years of denial, he also admitted to assaulting the two previous victims.
