No charges laid in Roast Busters investigation

Police have released the outcome of their investigation into the activities of the Roast Busters group.

The findings of Operation Clover will see no charges laid by Police at this time regarding 8 incidents involving 7 victims and 5 suspects.

The officer in charge of Operation Clover, Detective Inspector Karyn Malthus says this is a carefully considered decision taking into consideration a range of factors.

The 12-month enquiry focused on incidents involving allegations of sexual offending against a number of girls in the Waitemata Police district and wider Auckland area.

The group of West Auckland teenagers who called themselves ‘The Roast Busters’ were lunged into the media spotlight last year after posting videos of themselves online bragging about having sex with drunk girls, some of whom were underage.

The group also named some of the girls in their online videos criticising, degrading and making fun of them.

When the story initially broke, Police said they couldn't investigate the teen sex group's alleged actions because a formal complaint hadn't been laid. However it soon emerged a young girl had complained in 2011, but her case wasn't followed up.

An IPCA report into the incident released last year noted that Police failed to rectify the problem until after contradictory information emerged in the media. The report also outlined that trust and confidence is undermined when Police provide inaccurate information to the public.

Operation Clover was led by Detective Inspector Karyn Malthus who worked on the operation with a multi-agency investigation team which included the Waitematā Child Protection team and specialist Police from the Counties-Manukau and Auckland City Districts. Other Government agencies involved included Child Youth and Family, the Ministry of Education and ACC.