‘I have done some very bad things, Dad’

Manson Antonievic wrote from prison to his father: “I am always thinking about things that aren’t right, and obsessing constantly about murdering chicks.”

In a letter that said he was assessed as being a psychopath, 22-year-old Antonievic wrote, “I have been like this over the last 11 years. I have done some very bad things, Dad.”

The letter prompted the Crown to seek an open-ended sentence of preventive detention for Antonievic as he faced sentencing for rape, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, and injuring with intent to injure. He had pleaded guilty.

Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway told the sentencing session in the High Court at Christchurch today: “Preventive detention is really the only way in which the public can be adequately protected from him and the risk of him reoffending both violently and sexually in the future.”

He acknowledged that Antonievic was younger and did not have the list of previous convictions of other people who faced preventive detention, and he had not had rehabilitation programmes made available to him.

But he said his predilection for violence and his documented risk in terms of his offending, and in his own expressions, and in the health assessors’ reports, was so grave that preventive detention needed to be considered.

He explained that preventive detention was only considered after the prison authorities intercepted the letter that Antonievic wrote from prison to his father. The Crown then asked the District Court to decline jurisdiction and send the case to the High Court where preventive detention could be imposed.

Antonievic said in the letter that he had no empathy or remorse for anything he had done in his life. “I’m so violent, I smash people who say they love me,” he wrote. “I don’t think I can change.”

Defence counsel Nick Rout said Antonievic had asked him to convey his apologies to the victim, who was present in the court. “He realises he has caused her a great deal of harm. He regrets that and he apologises.”

Antonievic wanted to get help and would take any programmes available to him. He had had a terrible childhood and young adult years and had been “dehumanised” by abuse in his early life. That had led to early over-use of drugs and violence. Talking to a psychologist probably provided “the only sympathetic ears he has ever had”.

He said that Antonievic’s condition could be remedied by treatment, and urged that a fixed term of imprisonment be imposed rather than preventive detention. Antonievic asked for a chance to prove he could be rehabilitated.

Justice Gerald Nation said Antonievic cut a young woman with a craft knife, assaulted her, raped her, and forced her to perform oral sex. She said in her victim impact statement that she had suffered post traumatic stress disorder after the offending.

He said Antonievic had 21 convictions in the District Court, including six for assault, and four for assault with intent to injure. He noted the latest offending had occurred within days of him completing a sentence of imprisonment, and that he “gained pleasure and excitement from violence, particularly with women”.

He said the risk of future sexual offending after release from prison had been assessed by two health assessors as high, and it was assessed as very high for violent offending. Antonievic had spoken to one assessor about his “significant hostility towards women”. He had already served three prison terms for assaults. Methamphetamine was his drug of choice; he had been using it since the age of 12.

Justice Nation said the various reports “make chilling reading”. One wrote about Antonievic speaking in an “emotionless and normal manner”, showing he lacked insight into the sadistic and violent nature of what he was saying. Antonievic described “macabre acts of violence”. A psychiatrist reported his fantasy of killing multiple people in a public place.

He said Antonievic’s letter seemed to indicate he recognised now that he was — as he put it in the letter — “not right in the head” and that he had begun to realise how much he needed help.

He said the risk of further offending was high and imposed a term of preventive detention with a minimum term of imprisonment of six years. He said that if Antonievic took treatment programmes and counselling and made progress he could hope for a safe release into the community at some time.

He also gave Antonievic a first strike warning under the system that imposes heavier penalties on repeat violent offenders.

 

Category: News