Man who claimed ‘love affair’ with pre-teen girl has been jailed
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
A 26-year-old man who continues to claim that he and a pre-teen girl were in love and repeatedly having consensual sex has been jailed for 17 years 10 months on rape and violation charges.
The man, now aged 28, continues to deny the offending and had to be warned about contempt of court by Christchurch District Court Judge Emma Smith to make him stand quietly during his sentencing.
He interrupted twice while Crown prosecutor Aja Trinder was making her submissions, and he also turned his back on the judge at one stage.
The man signalled an inevitable appeal against his conviction at the October trial, and Judge Smith granted continued interim suppression to cover the 28-day period while the appeal can be filed. The order will then continue until the appeal is determined.
Judge Smith jailed him on 22 charges and imposed a non-parole term of eight years six months before he can be considered for release by the Parole Board. She said that term was necessary because of the seriousness of the offending and the man’s continuing denials.
His protestations that he and the pre-teenage girl were in love showed a “clear lack of insight”.
She imposed a series of suppression orders but refused a defence bid to ban publication of details of the case, which had been sought in case the Court of Appeal orders a retrial.
The man was being sentenced on 22 charges including five rapes of one girl, as well as sexual violations by unlawful sexual connection, indecent acts, and indecent assaults on two pre-teen girls, and five charges of making objectionable publications – videos of one girl naked – and perverting the course of justice by trying to dissuade one of the victims from giving evidence.
He had admitted the publications charges but had been found guilty of the rest at trial.
Miss Trinder said the man denied grooming the girls, but the Crown saw grooming as a significant aspect of the offending. The victims had been vulnerable given their age and background. She opposed continued named suppression.
Defence counsel Andrew McCormick said the man was a father-of-one who had been involved in the computer industry and had done a lot of free work for companies setting up websites after the Christchurch earthquakes.
He did not accept the jury’s verdicts. He maintained that his relationship with one girl was consensual and had grown from “spontaneous and mutual attraction”. The evidence of the other girl had been fabricated, the man said.
Mr McCormick asked that any jail term imposed not be “crushing” on the man. He had only some fraud convictions on his record. He suggested that no non-parole term be imposed so that the man’s release could be left to the Parole Board to decide.
Judge Smith said the man’s cognitive process “beggars belief” when he claimed that a pre-teen girl in vulnerable circumstances could have consented to sex. His behaviour was “gross, predatory, determined” and had been for his complete sexual gratification.
The victim impact statements of the girls made chilling reading, she said. They had led to nightmares, sleeping with the light on, flashbacks, disruptions to school work, and one had been left “angry and sad”. One of the girls had had suicidal thoughts. Neither of them wanted the man to have name suppression.
Category: News
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