May 27, 2010

Youth offender could become 'ticking time bomb'

By David Clarkson

A judge has told a 19-year-old sex offender to get the help he needs before he becomes ?a ticking time bomb?.

Suppression of name also ended for Zac Ayres Pernesz, now unemployed but formerly a farmhand on a property near Timaru, who received a 22-month jail term for the sexual violation of a woman by unlawful sexual connection.

Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave accepted that a psychological report disclosed issues of abuse in Pernesz?s own background, a subject he had begun to speak about for the first time.

?Whatever it was that set him off on this path, it is blocking his ability to deal with it.?

He said Pernesz?s efforts to deal with the issues by using drugs and alcohol had been hamfisted and were only making matters worse.

If Pernesz?s problems were addressed, he had the prospect of leading a productive and healthy life. If not, he had the potential to become a ticking time bomb, said the judge.

He noted an indecent assault conviction on Pernesz?s record.

Imposing the jail term, he said: ?Whatever assistance is offered to you, I urge you to take it, if you want to avoid coming back here again and again and presenting judges like myself with an even more difficult job. The future lies in your hands. Please take it.?

The court was told that Pernesz had taken the bed covers and pants off a woman who was drunk and asleep and had inserted his fingers into her anus. She woke and pushed his hand away, and he asked her for sex.

She then she struck him and he fell on the floor where he curled into a ball, mumbling incoherently. He then appeared to snap out of it, stating, ?Not again, not again.?

The victim?s statement was read to the court, saying she had since withdrawn from her partner and others, and had been receiving psychological counselling for the effects of the offending. She was now being treated with medication.

Defence counsel Sarah Saunderson-Warner said Pernesz needed to attend a Stop programme for sex offenders but he was too young to qualify, and his offending had not been against children.

Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae, from Timaru, said he believed it was a case where there needed to be a structured environment for Pernesz to receive a rehabilitative sentence.

Pernesz was not able to be granted home detention because no suitable address was available.

He also admitted charges of possession of cannabis and a pipe for smoking the drug.

He was also disqualified from driving for nine months after admitting a charge of dangerous driving over an incident in Christchurch.

A passenger in his vehicle ? ?no doubt fuelled by too much alcohol and testosterone and too few brain cells?, said the judge ? had yelled at another vehicle and then Pernesz rammed it from behind, causing $1440 damage which he was ordered to repay at $10 a week after his release from prison.