The man appeared in the Whangārei District Court. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
A second Northland man linked to a secretive sect known as the Two by Twos has appeared in court charged with sex offences.
The 80-year-old faces 12 charges of indecent assault, two of performing an indecent act, and one each of sodomy and bestiality.
The four complainants were boys aged between 12 and 16 when the alleged incidents occurred in the 1970s and 80s.
During a brief appearance in the Whangārei District Court on Thursday, Judge Gene Tomlinson renewed the man's bail until a case review hearing on 17 April.
On that date the court will consider whether to continue the man's name suppression.
He pleaded not guilty at his previous appearance and elected a jury trial.
In December, Kerikeri man Bill Easton, a former minister in the sect, was sentenced to 13 years' jail in December after pleading guilty to sex offences against boys.
A hallmark of the Christian sect, which has no official name but is known as The Truth or the Two by Twos, is that its itinerant ministers travel in pairs and stay in members' homes.
It is believed to have about 2500 members and 60 ministers in New Zealand.
The group is also under investigation by the FBI for alleged historical child sexual abuse.
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