AUT Resignation Among Allegations

The former Dean of Dunedin's cathedral has resigned from his latest role as chief executive of AUT's business innovation centre in the face of "possible accounting discrepancies".

More than $500,000 is believed to be missing from the government-funded Auckland University of Technology.

Rev Jonathan Kirkpatrick, who is also the former lover of ex-Labour MP Tim Barnett, resigned in relation to "possible accounting discrepancies", AUT spokeswoman Barbara Bilcich said.

She said an internal investigation lead to the discovery and the matter has been forwarded to the police.

AUT took a civil case against Kirkpatrick to the High Court at Auckland yesterday though the university would not comment on of what was being pursued.

AUT has ordered an urgent audit and staff are keeping tight-lipped over the details except to say that police are investigating.

Kirkpatrick was a Reverend and Priest in Charge at St Alban's Church in Balmoral, in central Auckland, where his assistant priest was Reverend Philip Sallis, who is also the Pro Vice Chancellor of AUT.

Prof Sallis said he had no comment about the allegations against Kirkpatrick and Bishop of Auckland Ross Bay said Kirkpatrick no longer held any position of responsibility within the church.

The Auckland bishop's media advisor Vicar Jayson Rhodes also declined to comment on the issue.

Detective senior sergeant Hywel Jones of the Auckland police fraud squad confirmed a complaint had been laid on Monday.

Rev Kirkpatrick is no longer chairman of Incubators New Zealand, an organisation which works to nurture newly formed companies and entrepreneurs.

Incubators is aware of the investigation but refused to comment.

Mr Barnett was unable to be contacted as he is in South Africa but former Labour MP Chris Carter said he had met Rev Kirkpatrick when he was with Mr Barnett.

"He was a Dean, of course he was respectable," Mr Carter said.

Rev Kirkpatrick has a First Class honours degree in theology from the University of London and an MBA from the University of Otago.

He was ordained in London in 1985 after beginning his career as a church army officer.

After working in England he came to New Zealand with Barnett in 1991 to be the Vicar of St Michael and All Angels Church in Christchurch and was there for five years.

In 1996 he was made the tenth Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin, working below the country's first female bishop Penny Jamieson.

In 1998, when he was Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, he was in a car accident with then-boyfriend Mr Barnett.

Their car spun 40 metres off the road while they were driving from Invercargill to Dunedin.

Kirkpatrick underwent surgery to pin a bone together in his lower back.

In 1998 he was part of a complaint against a TV documentary Sex, Lies and Videotape about the dismissal of the director of music at St Paul's and subsequent walk-out by all but one member of the all-male choir.

The reason for the dismissal was said to relate to inappropriate conduct of the director in relation to choir members.

Rev Kirkpatrick was not able to be reached for comment.

- Stuff.co.nz