Still staunchly defiant, a 51-year-old man has been jailed for 18 years for the sexual abuse of five girls when they were aged between four and fourteen years.

Just before his Christchurch District Court sentencing, the man sent a letter to the judge reaffirming his denial of everything, and refusing to acknowledge any remorse or contrition.

The man had denied 33 charges at a Christchurch trial in August. His defence was that the offending just never happened.

The jury convicted him on 28 of the charges after an 11-day hearing. It returned guilty verdicts on charges of indecent assault, indecent acts, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, and rape.

Guilty verdicts were delivered involving all five of the girls – now teenagers or adults – who gave evidence by video-link or from behind a screen in court, during the trial before Judge Alistair Garland.

Some of the details of the evidence, including the location of the offending, has been suppressed during the trial and at the sentencing. The man was granted final suppression to protect the identity of the girls.

Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said the offending against two of the girls had involved premeditation and planning. The girls were vulnerable because of their young ages. The harm caused had been significant. One had been left with severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder and another had self-harmed, and they had been left depressed and wary in public. One reported turning to alcohol and drugs, and having relationship difficulties.

The trial was told that the man had gone overseas for six years after changing his name and getting a passport after the police investigation began. He was returned to New Zealand after being convicted of possessing child exploitation material. He had also served an eight-year jail term in Australia for drug importation.

A psychologist’s report ahead of the sentencing said the man required “extensive treatment” to understand the factors underlying his propensity to commit further offending.

Defence counsel Peter Kaye said there was no need to prolong the sentencing process by referring the case to the High Court for preventive detention to be considered. Without preventive detention being imposed, the jail term would mean that the man was not considered for release until he was in his mid-to-late 60s.

He urged the judge not to impose a sentence so long that it excluded the man of any hope of a meaningful life in the community in the future.

Judge Garland said the man had done “unmeasurable harm” to the girls. The man’s risk of offending against young people was assessed as high. A rehabilitation programme was vital for his future, and for the safety of the community.

It was difficult to say whether alcohol or drugs had played a role in the offending because the man had refused to discuss anything about the offending in his pre-sentence interview with a probation officer.

Describing the man’s offending as predatory and his conduct as degrading, the judge imposed jail terms amounting to 18 years with an order that he cannot be considered for release until he has served 10 years. He will be registered as a child sex offender.

The man will not receive treatment in prison while he continues to deny the offending.

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Disabled residents at the Alpha Support Trust struggled with lack of staff and unsanitary conditions because of the thefts by the couple running the centre in Waltham, says the Serious Fraud Office.

Prosecutor Anne Toohey said: “The victims of the fraud were the clients of the Alpha Trust.”

She said at the couple’s sentencing hearing in the Christchurch District Court that the victim impact statements by the centre’s residents and their families made “disturbing reading”.

She said repayment of nearly half a million dollars reparation to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Development by the couple would not “remedy the wrong” that had been done to the residents.

Some had been left in wet nappies all day because of the lack of staff, and had activities reduced. The amount stolen over a period of years might have been enough to pay for three more staff.

Cecilia Ann Ellenbroek, 62, and Alfonsus Jozef Maria Ellenbroek, 64, admitted stealing the money from the Alpha Support Centre Trust between 2010 and 2015.

Cecilia Ellenbroek admitted six charges of false accounting and six charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, amounting to $494,544.

Alfonsus Ellenbroek admitted six charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, totalling $71,080. That amount was included in the total attributed to his wife.

The Ellenbroeks were the trustees. Alfonsus Ellenbroek was the chairman and the operations manager. He oversaw the payroll. Cecilia Ellenbroek was the effective chief executive officer responsible for the day-to-day management.

Miss Toohey rejected any suggestion from the defence that the offenders had a “blue collar” background. The repayment of the stolen money had come from the sale of a holiday home in Queenstown and from a superannuation fund.

The offending by Cecilia Ellenbroek had enabled her and her family to live in a way that was well beyong the reach of most New Zealanders.

Full reparation is being paid. All but about $20,000 had already been paid, and the rest would be paid by the end of the year when Alfonsus Ellenbroek accessed superannuation funds.

One parent of a high-needs patient in her 20s, who was blind, had medical problems, and limited ability to communicate, said she was concerned at the lack of staff and reduced services at the Alpha Support Centre. She felt the family had been let down badly by the Ellenbroeks.

She said: “How dare they steal from such vulnerable people who have such precious little in their lives?”

Defence counsel for Alfonsus Ellenbroek, Kerry Cook, said it was astonishing that so much money had been paid over by the Ministry of Health without checks and balances in place to ensure continuing oversight. His offending had not been sophisticated.

Defence counsel for Cecilia Ellenbroek, James Rapley, said the Ministry of Health had provided the centre with $1million funding a year and had never conducted a single audit. The Ministry of Social Development had conducted a quality control audit every year or 18 months.

He said the couple had genuinely sought to help people in need and had set up the trust to do that. The fraud had been a “secondary companion” to the work they did, and had grown out of control.

He also said a jail term would be disproportionately severe in Cecilia Ellenbroek’s circumstances, because of the care she provided to her disabled son.

Judge David Saunders imposed 12 months’ home detention and 300 hours of community work on Cecilia Ellenbroek, and six months of community detention – a curfew nightly and at the weekends – on Alfonsus Ellenbroek as well as 200 hours of community work.

He also ordered six months of post-detention conditions and full reparations.

The Serious Fraud Office accepted that a community-based sentence was appropriate for Alfonsus Ellenbroek, but it also argued against home detention for Cecilia Ellenbroek and it may consider lodging a Solicitor-General’s appeal against the sentence.

The two government departments involved have said the reparations will go towards the National Disability Support Service and the Community Participation Service for Disabled Persons.

The names of the Alpha Support Trust patients seen as victims of the offending are suppressed.

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After two months in custody for breaches, hip-hop artist Scribe has been granted electronically monitored bail at a hearing in the Christchurch District Court.

Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger applied for his release, after the 39-year-old performer — real name Malo Ioane Luafutu – was arrested in late August after he allegedly attended a gig in Motueka that was not approved under his bail conditions.

He had been warned earlier after being arrested on the street, on his bicycle, in breach of his 24-hour-a-day curfew.

Judge Gary MacAskill today decided to grant Scribe electronically monitored bail pending his appearance on December 13 for a judge-alone trial on a breach of protection order charge.

All charges have been remanded to that date, including a charge of methamphetamine possession for which he will seek a discharge without conviction.

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A Christchurch teacher has been charged with possession of 1.5g of methamphetamine for supply – an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The man, in his 50s, was granted interim name suppression by Judge Brian Callaghan until his next appearance in the Christchurch District Court on November 20.

In the meantime, he wants the suppression to allow him tell family members of his arrest but defence counsel Chris Nolan said a permanent order would be sought at a later hearing.

The teacher is charged with possession of the class A drug for supply at Christchurch on Friday, and possession of a pipe for smoking it.

He has entered no pleas, and was granted bail for the remand.

The man is jointly charged with a 46-year-old man, Richard Jody Williams, a screen printer, who was also granted bail and remanded to the same date. He will deny the charges.

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Judges were worried by the level of violence in prisons, said a Christchurch judge as she imposed a 15-year term on a sex offender who has already had one serious beating, and is expecting another.

“It’s worrying to judges, and it should be worrying to the community as well,” said Judge Jane Farish as she jailed the 50-year-old who needed surgery after his first prison bashing.

Supporting defence counsel Tim Mackenzie – the man represented himself at his trial – told the man’s Christchurch District Court sentencing session that he had been assaulted in prison.

Mr Mackenzie said: “He will now be moving into the sentenced prisoners’ area and he has some pretty grave issues about who runs that area and some follow-up that will occur. That’s part of life in prison.”

Judge Farish said it was “quite frankly appalling”. She understood there were good reasons why someone in the offender’s position would not make a complaint about the assault.

“It is appalling that within the prison environment, someone can be very seriously assaulted without any consequences or remedies,” said the judge. “It speaks volumes about how we incarcerate people and what’s happening within the prison system.”

Keeping the man segregated from all other prisoners would not be good for him in the long term.

The man does not have name suppression, but his name cannot be reported because the victim was his wife of 26 years.

The man’s first jury trial had to be aborted because of issues about his legal representation, and he then pleaded guilty during his second trial after his wife and two other witnesses had given evidence.

He had admitted kidnapping her, representative charges of raping her, sexually violating and indecently assaulting her, injuring her with intent to injure, and a breach of prison release conditions.

The offending spanned 21 years but Judge Farish said that period included times when the family unit functioned fairly well.

The couple had four children, who have all been taken into care because of the violence in the relationship and the drug taking. The couple were dependent on drugs, and the woman was working as a sex worker to pay for the drugs. She was also taking sleeping tablets.

The woman gave evidence of rapes. She also told of sexual assaults as she slept, and of repeated threats. She believed she would die on a night when the man threatened to place a plastic bag over her head. She sometimes complained to the police, but then withdrew the complaints or did not follow through – until two years ago when the man was arrested. He has now been in custody on remand for 16 months.

The 51-year-old’s victim impact statement was read in court, telling of “physical, sexual, verbal, and psychological abuse” during the marriage.

“He has controlled all aspects of my life,” she said. “I was extremely frightened of him and truly believed he would one day kill me.”

Even after his sentencing, she would still be in fear because she believed he could make arrangements to hurt her from inside prison.

The man blamed her for everything bad that had happened to him. Years of psychological abuse had “ground” her down to nothing. “I am broken because of you,” she said.

“I wanted him to stop, and I wanted no female to be in this position ever again,” she said. She was now getting her life and identity back. “I now live with hope and not fear.”

Judge Farish jailed the man for 15 years, and imposed a non-parole term of seven years six months before he can apply for release to be considered by the Parole Board.

She said he had a “difficult personality type” which posed difficulties for long term treatment, but she hoped he would get psychological assistance during the sentence.

She read him a first-strike warning under the system that imposes heavier penalties on repeat violent offenders.

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Name suppression continues for a 24-year-old man charged with the murder of Luke Spears in an alleged shooting at Charing Cross, in rural Canterbury, last month.

The order was continued in the High Court at Christchurch by Justice Gerald Nation,who remanded the man in custody to a case review hearing on February 5.

The Christchurch process worker is alleged to have killed Mr Sears, also known as Luke Riddell, 28, in a confrontation on Grange Road, in Selwyn District, about 3.30pm on October 13.

The man is also charged with unlawful possession of a shotgun.

No pleas have been entered.

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Three men have been urged to stay clear of the Mongrel Mob or face a difficult future and likely jail time, at their sentencing for what began as a gang stand-over incident.

All three were given community-based sentences by Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish after the Crown agreed to drop the most serious charge – aggravated robbery – and after they had all served time in custody on remand.

They were arrested after an incident in Rangiora in May, which led to police raids where firearms and drugs were found.

Cai Evans, 22, had admitted unlawful possession of a pistol, possession of cannabis and a class B drug, and breaches of an earlier intensive supervision sentence.

Jac Rhys Howells, 21, admitted two charges of possession of cannabis, trespassing at his parents’ home, driving while suspended, dangerous driving, and failing to stop for the police.

Heremai Steven Te Wake, 31, admitted charges of assault, possession of cannabis, and unlawful possession of two rifles.

The trio went to a house in central Rangiora, where they were friends with the resident.

The Crown said Te Wake was a patched member of the Mongrel Mob and Evans was a gang prospect.

They went into the house and Te Wake repeatedly asked the victim for all his money and drugs. When he wasn’t given any, he punched the victim twice in the face and told him he would keep punching until he gave him money.

The victim went to the lounge and got $40 from his father and gave it to Te Wake. The three men then left. The victim was checked by the St John Ambulance because he had bruising and swelling to his face, and a sore mouth. He had memory black-outs and thought he lost consciousness.

Defence counsel Rachel Wood and Andrew McKenzie said their clients Te Wake and Evans had turned their back on their gang connections. Kiran Paima urged that his client Howells be given a community work sentence to enable him to return to work in the construction industry.

Judge Farish said: “Both Mr Evans and Mr Howells will have to make sure they step away from the Mongrel Mob or their good intentions will go out the window.”

She told Te Wake that he now needed to set a good example for his 11-year-old son by moving away from anti-social activities.

Judge Farish gave Howells 40 hours of community work, and if he does most of that by January 18 – to prove he can do it – she will not disqualify him from driving but will give him more community work instead.

She sentenced Te Wake to 100 hours of community work.

Evans was also being resentenced for possession of ecstasy, unlawfully taking a car, breaches of community work and supervision, drink-driving, possession of cannabis, and dishonestly accessing a computer – a supervision sentence he had breached.

The judge released him again under intensive supervision for a year and said she would monitor him with three-monthly reports. He will be assessed for an alcohol and drugs rehabilitation programme, and will have to attend treatment and counselling as directed.

She ordered destruction of all the firearms, ammunition, and drugs the police found.

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Courts all over New Zealand were shut for the afternoon after another walk-out by staff in support of a pay claim.

The latest walk-out came after about seven weeks of court stoppages caused by work-to-rule industrial action, and several brief strikes.

Court registrars and Court Security Officers are taking the action over a pay dispute, and the courts cannot sit while they are not present.

Court sittings have been disrupted for weeks by regular breaks by staff, and court houses being shut over lunch time with all staff taking their breaks at the same time.

Today’s national stoppage from 12.30pm was also to be marked by a staff protest on the street outside the Justice Precinct in central Christchurch.

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Court staff have cranked up their industrial action – expensively – with a ban on video-link court appearances.

They will also ban all pre-arranged sentencings, though people who plead guilty may still be sentenced on the spot. The action means some remand prisoners may spend longer in custody.

The national ban applies to Public Service Association members who have so far been working to rule and sometimes striking in support of a pay claim.

However, in Christchurch the ban will apply to all video-link appearances.

It means that people arrested will have to be brought to the courts instead of appearing on screen from police cell areas and prisoners on remand will have to be brought in by prison van from the prisons when they have appearances.

All the courts in the one-year-old Christchurch Justice Precinct are equipped for appearances by video-link with large television screens mounted high on the walls and registrars controlling appearances by computers at their desks.

The ban also affected a judge-alone burglary trial which was due to take place in Christchurch today, because some evidence was due to be heard by video-link from a witness in Auckland. The trial was being put off, but an arrest warrant was also issued by Judge Gary MacAskill because the alleged woman burglar did not turn up at court.

The industrial action is now in its seventh week. Several strikes have been held including a half-day strike on Wednesday afternoon which closed court buildings all over the country. In Christchurch, staff took to the streets with placards supporting their pay claim.

The work-to-rule involves staff all taking their breaks at the same time. This means that courts have to halt sittings at times because of lack of staff, and the Justice Precinct has been closed for an hour from 12.30pm each day while they all have their lunch break.

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Twelve more charges, including allegations of causing a church to act on forged documents, have been laid against a Christchurch businessman who has been facing a mounting list of charges over the last month.

Interim name suppression was continued at the Christchurch District Court today for the 44-year-old man who now faces a total of 67 charges.

Police said they were opposed to the continued name suppression and may seek to make submissions at the next appearance to try to have it lifted.

Defence counsel Craig Ruane said he would review the case before the next appearance to decide whether to apply for it to be continued. The next hearing may set a time for legal argument about the order.

The man appeared in separate courts this afternoon, one for police charges, as well as Inland Revenue alleging 19 tax offences totalling more than $230,000.

Judge David Saunders in one court and Judge Brian Callaghan in the other remanded him on continued bail to appear in just one court sitting on November 29. The combined appearance was requested by the IRD’s senior prosecutor Paul Saunders.

Mr Ruane told the court he had just received the paperwork relating to the tax charges, and still had only limited documentation relating to the police allegations.

The latest charges are one allegation of using a forged document, 10 of causing a church to act on a document he knew had been forged, and one of theft by failing to account.

Before his appearance on the tax charges, the man faced 10 dishonesty related charges including five of using a man’s eftpos card to obtain money, dishonestly using the man’s cell phone to obtain $35,000, and another charge of fraudulently obtaining $12,660.

Then on Monday this week, he faced 26 more charges alleging theft by failing to account totalling $108,446 and fraud charges totalling $69,389, as well as theft of a computer and the proceeds of a sale, and dishonest use of a bank card.

No pleas have been entered to any charges.

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Married At First Sight contestant Ottie Schwartz, 32, has been charged with drink-driving at the Christchurch District Court.

She was granted a registrar’s remand without having to appear before the community magistrate in court, and is due to appear again on November 14.

Schwartz, of the Christchurch suburb of Richmond, is charged with driving on Avalon Street in Christchurch last week with a level of 473mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath.

The legal limit is 250mcg, which brings a traffic ticket, and exceeding 400mcg means prosecution at court.

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A drink-driver has accepted he killed his 21-year-old passenger when he crashed into a concrete fence post and tree stump on a rural Canterbury road.

Tyler Croll-Davis, 24, pleaded guilty to the crash in the Christchurch District Court today – more than 14 months after the early morning crash on the Methven Highway that killed David Muir.

Members of the victim’s family were present at the court to see him plead guilty to the drink-driving causing death charge, as well as three charges of driving while disqualified.

He has been convicted at least twice previously of disqualified driving so the convictions carry heavier penalties.

Defence counsel Nick Rout said Croll-Davis now accepted that he must have been the driver.

“He’s been remorseful since the beginning. He just wanted to make sure the police have got it right,” said Mr Rout. There were matters that Croll-Davis simply could not remember.

After the crash, Croll-Davis got himself out of the car and walked to a nearby farmhouse to get medical assistance for himself. Mr Muir had been killed instantly in the crash.

Croll-Davis initially told the police that Mr Muir had been the driver and he had been a passenger. He said other people were also in the car.

Crown prosecutor Sophia Bicknell Young said that on December 19, 2016, in the Ashburton District Court, Croll-Davis was convicted of failing to stop for the police, aggravated driving while disqualified, and dangerous driving. He was imprisoned for nine months and disqualified for a year.

In August 2017, he was driven to Methven, where he bought a car and drove it 15km home.

A few weeks later, he took a workmate’s car and drove it on a rough stretch of road. Because of pre-existing damage and his driving he caused extensive damage including causing a wheel assembly to break off.

He drove another workmate’s vehicle on the night of September 1 to 2, 2017, after drinking and socialising with Mr Muir. Croll-Davis drove with Mr Muir in the passenger seat, and both were wearing seat belts.

Croll-Davis lost control on a straight stretch of road and the car slid sideways into the concrete post supported by a tree stump.

The Crown dropped two charges of unlawfully taking the cars involved before Croll-Davis pleaded guilty to the remaining charges.

Judge Farish said she believed a restorative justice meeting with the victim’s family would be beneficial if the family were willing. Mr Rout said Croll-Davis was apprehensive about meeting the family but wanted to have the meeting.

Judge Farish remanded Croll-Davis in custody for sentencing on December 13. She referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting and asked for a pre-sentence report.

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A patient who lit a fire in a room at Princess Margaret Hospital’s Seager Clinic has admitted a charge of arson.

A psychiatric report will be prepared ahead of the March sentencing of Angela Maree McDonald, 37, to suggest how the case should be disposed of.

Defence counsel Tony Garrett and the police asked for the report at the Christchurch District Court appearance today. Mr Garrett said there were “some health issues”, but there was secure accommodation available for McDonald during the remand and bail was not opposed.

He said McDonald had not spoken of any intention to light any more fires and had no ill-will towards the other clinic resident whose room was the scene of the October 10 fire.

McDonald pleaded guilty to the arson charge at an appearance before Judge Tom Gilbert.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Scott said McDonald and the victim were both patients at the Seager Clinic.

He said McDonald saw the victim leave her room and then entered the unlocked room, taking the woman’s name tag from the door.

She placed the tag on the bed and lit it on fire using a lighter. She then set light to fabric draped over a small table, before returning to her room to wait for the fire alarm to sound.

“The victim’s bed, beside table and personal belongings were destroyed. There was smoke damage and significant water damage from the sprinkler system,” said Sergeant Scott.

McDonald admitted to police that she had lit the fire. She said she wanted to destroy everything the victim owned.

Judge Gilbert asked for a pre-sentence report for the March 7 sentencing, which will cover her suitability for a home or community detention sentence, as well as the psychiatric report.

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A frenzied knife attack in Ilam Road by 52-year-old Shiu Prasad killed his wife and injured the man she had left him for, a week after the marriage separation.

People tried to help at the scene of the horrific attack but were kept away by the knife-wielding husband.

The brutal attack – a surprise stab in the back and then multiple wounds from a large kitchen knife – was detailed in the High Court at Christchurch today as Prasad admitted the murder of 28-year-old rest home worker Keshni Naicker.

Prasad stood quietly in the dock as Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh read the account of the September 15 attack.

Justice Gerald Nation then remanded Prasad in custody for sentencing on December 7. He asked for a pre-sentence report and a victim impact report.

Prasad also admitted wound Naicker’s new partner with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Prasad and Keshni Naicker had been married since December 2013. On September 8 this year, they had an argument and Naicker moved out of their home in Christchurch. She told Prasad next day that she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him.

Over the next week, Prasad asked her repeatedly if she was in a relationship with another man, which she denied. He kept phoning and texting, with 108 calls and texts on September 9, and 33 the next day. Naicker usually would not respond.

He said he still loved her, challenged her over having a new boyfriend, and threatened suicide. He threatened to expose her “perceived infidelity” to her family in Fiji.

Naicker had met Asveen Sharan, a 31-year-old meat process worker, online in January 2018, and by the time of her death he was her current partner.

On September 15, Sharan saw a man drive past and stare at him and then stop further up the road as he walked to Naicker’s workplace. The driver was Prasad. Naicker had expressed concerns about him.

Sharan and Naicker met at the Bush Inn and when they were walking on Waimairi Road afterwards, Prasad drove past them.

He texted Naicker afterwards, confronting her about seeing another man. She accused him of following her. He denied following her, but said he would not bother her anymore. He said he would “kill myself now”.

At 7.45pm on September 15, Naicker was due to finish her shift at a rest home in Ilam Road.

Prasad had food and wine and decided to confront and stab Naicker. He took a kitchen knife with a 21cm blade, hid it in a newspaper, and walked to her workplace where he waited for 30min for her shift to finish. He drank more wine as he waited.

Sharan met Naicker so they could walk home together. As they walked together, Prasad ran up behind them and stabbed Naicker in the mid and lower back.

He then stabbed Sharan in the head, and when he fell down Prasad stabbed him another four times – in the chest, back, and arm and shoulder. Naicker was screaming at Prasad to stop, while Sharan was fighting back and calling for her to run away.

She ran towards a vehicle on Ilam Road, causing the driver to stop, and tried to get in the back door but could not get in.

Prasad chased her and caught her 80m from where she had first been attacked. She fell to the ground, and Prasad stabbed her several times in the abdominal area in a frenzied attack. She received multiple defence wounds to her arms and hands as she fought for her life.

Sharan went over in spite of his injuries and tried to intervene but Prasad threatened him to make him stand back.

The driver of the car Naicker had tried to get into also tried to help but Prasad waved the knife at her, too, keeping her away.

When other bystanders tried to intervene, Prasad yelled: “It’s okay. She’s my wife. It’s okay. I’m going to die with her. We are going to die together.”

When he stopped the assault, he said, “I’ve nothing left”, and “I will kill myself.” He then lifted his shirt, stabbed himself four times in the abdomen, and threw the knife away. He then lay down on his back next to Naicker and cradled her head.

Naicker died in the ambulance while being treated by St John paramedics.

Sharan was taken to hospital with five serious stab wounds which needed stitches, and grazes to his knees and knuckles.

Naicker received six substantial stab wounds. Two struck critical organs, causing internal bleeding which caused her death. She also had wounds to her arm, lower abdomen, the side of her mouth, and hand.

Prasad said he was so angry his “mind was not right”. He said it was “hard to say” if he wanted Naicker to die.

He acknowledged making “the biggest mistake of my life”.

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Thirty years of sexual offending against women and children has led the court to impose an open-ended preventive detention sentence on a 52-year-old man.

The man’s criminal history lists sex charges involving seven children.

Justice Cameron Mander imposed preventive detention at the man’s sentencing in the High Court at Christchurch, and ordered that he serve at least seven years before he can be considered for release.

He said the man had shown a lack of insight into his offending, and his continuing denials made the prospect of any success from further treatment negligible.

Preventive detention meant he would not be released until there was “a degree of confidence that the safety of the community would not be placed at risk”, the judge said.

The man has name suppression. He was found guilty of two charges of rape and unlawful sexual connection against the same woman at the end of a five-day jury trial in June. All the charges were representative, meaning the alleged the offences were committed repeatedly.

The man has already served a series of prison terms for sexual offending, including sexual offences against seven children.

Crown prosecutor Mitchell McClenaghan said the sentence was necessary to protect the community. He said one health assessor rated the man’s risk of further sexual offending as “medium to high”. His offending was seen as “strongly driven by sexual deviancy”. Another assessor saw him as a moderate risk of further offending.

Defence counsel Ethan Huda said the man’s experiences as a child led him to offend. He had responded well to a Kia Marama treatment programme about child sex offending.

The woman said in her victim impact statement that she had been fearful of encountering the man again. She said his “continual anger and psychotic behaviour” had made her fear for her life and the life of her children.

She had been diagnosed with depression and post traumatic stress disorder. She was now married, but remained highly scared of being intimate. She suffered from anxiety and panic attacks.

Justice Cameron Mander said the man had been raised in a harsh and unforgiving environment and had been subjected to abuse. He had since described himself as “feeling different to others and never fitting in”.

His offending began in his teenage years, involving children, including the rape of a 14-year-old girl. His latest offending involved an adult woman. There was an escalating use of force and violence.

He noted the assessments of the man being a moderate-to-high risk of further sexual offending. He had a history of his own abuse, followed by substance abuse, and suicide attempts. He had not offended against children since he completed the Kia Marama programme and was released from prison in 2002.

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Home detention was allowed for a 21-year-old who admitted being in a group that used a knife to rob the dairy at Springston.

Harrison Blackburn, a sales person, will serve 10 months’ home detention at an address in St Albans, after his sentencing on the aggravated robbery charge in the Christchurch District Court.

He had admitted the robbery which took place at 6pm on June 30, when the police say four men went to the dairy after discussing robbing it of cigarettes and cash.

One was a look-out, one a driver, and two went into the dairy wearing disguises with one holding a small folding knife.

The lone woman working in the shop realised what was happening and stepped away from the counter while the two men filled bags with 17 pouches of tobacco worth about $1150. Apart from presenting the knife, no threats were made, and the robbery was over in 45 seconds.

Police found the four next and all were jointly charged with the robbery.

The other men are being dealt with separately.

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A Tuahiwi mother-of-three will spend months doing her community work after her failed attempt to smuggle contraband into Christchurch Men’s Prison inside her underwear.

Horiana Tearamatanga Falwasser, 24, told police she would have been paid $100 for delivering the two packages tightly bound in black and red electrical tape to an inmate.

They were found hidden in her underpants during a routine search on August 9 as she entered the prison to visit an inmate.

The packages contained 40 Tramadol tablets, 150g of tobacco and papers, two micro cell phones, and a charger.

Falwasser said they had been prepared for her by someone else and she thought they contained tobacco. She admitted the breach of the Corrections Act last month, as well as charges of stealing tools from a tradesman’s vehicle at Sumner, and failing to come to court on bail.

When she pleaded guilty, the judge referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting with the tradie, but that meeting never happened.

At Falwasser’s Christchurch District Court sentencing, defence counsel Emma Nicol said the woman had not been able to be contacted because he cell phone had been stolen and she had a different number.

“That’s just weak as an excuse, I’m sorry to say,” said Judge David Saunders. “She’s swinging the lead.” If Falwasser had been serious about restorative justice, she would have made contact.

She had also been offered diversion for some of the offending but had failed to come up with the reparation payment.

Miss Nicol said Falwasser had earlier failed to attend court because she lived at Tuahiwi and had been unable to get into the city. She had now applied for a part time job and could do community work and pay reparations by December 31.

Judge Saunders noted that Falwasser had no previous convictions. He sentenced her to a total of 100 hours of community work and ordered her to pay her $80 share of the reparatations for the vehicle break-in.

She had been the driver for the group of four who smashed a window to break into the vehicle parked in the street at Sumner about 7.20am on April 16. Tools worth $4000 were stolen but they had been recovered.

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A man with intellectual limitations has been given a suspended sentence after admitting voting 11 times in last year’s General Election.

The police’s details on the case do not disclose which party Michael Shane Turner voted for.

Christchurch District Court Judge John Strettell said the 45-year-old did know the difference between right and wrong but he had “a more limited understanding of the implications of this than one would expect of the general public”.

He refused an application by defence counsel Vicki Walsh for suppression of Turner’s name but did suppress one aspect of the case.

Turner pleaded guilty to the charge of voting multiple times – apparently all in his own name –  between September 11 and 23, 2017.

He cast an advance vote at a polling booth in a library on September 11, and cast six more advance votes at various locations around Christchurch over the next 10 days.

On election day, September 23, he cast four special votes at various locations.

The police summary of facts lists all the locations and dates.

All the votes were for the same party and candidate.

Turner told police he voted multiple times to boost the vote numbers for his chosen party, but said he did not know it was wrong to vote more than once.

Mrs Walsh said after he pleaded guilty that there were clearly “limitations” on Turner’s understanding but there was also anxiety and fear. A community worker accompanied Turner to the hearing.

Judge Strettell said Turner had been before the court several times, but there were significant gaps between his offending and he had appeared only once, on a minor charge, since 2001.

He ordered that Turner “come up for sentence within six months if called upon”, which means that if he offends again he can be recalled on this charge and sentenced on it. But otherwise there is no penalty.

The judge said the order would ensure Turner did not place himself in this position again.

The post Multiple voting charge admitted appeared first on Courtnews.co.nz.

A motorcyclist who allegedly posted a video of himself driving at 200kmh and overtaking on a narrow hill road on the Port Hills was remanded to appear in the Christchurch District Court on December 1.

It is alleged Dane Allan Montgomery, a 33-year-old painter from Spreydon, posted the video of himself test driving his Honda Hornet CB919 on YouTube.

The caption on the film said, “Nice Saturday cruising round the bays while avoiding idiot road users” and the video showed the speedometer clocking 200kmh.

Today Montgomery was given a registrar’s remand, which meant he did not appear in court, on a charge of driving dangerously on Governors Bay Road on August 24, and a charge of giving false information to the police for a driving infringement on September 11.

The post High speed ride alleged appeared first on Courtnews.co.nz.

Reality tv contestant Ottie Schwartz resisted any extra publicity when she was fined and disqualified for a drink-driving charge in the Christchurch District Court today.

Through her lawyer Linda Drummond, the 32-year-old objected to a media application to photograph her as she stood in the dock.

Media have to get permission from the court before they are allowed to take photographs inside a courtroom.

Miss Drummond argued there was no public interest in additional photographs being taken and published of Schwartz, who has appeared in the series Married at First Sight.

She described the photography as “additional punishment” because of something she had been involved in for a brief period “in her private life”.

Community Magistrate Simon Heale decided to allow The Press photographer to take one photograph. He said: “The public really are the group that indicate what is in the public interest.”

Schwartz was caught drink-driving on October 28, on Avalon Street where she lives in the Christchurch suburb of Richmond, with a level of 473mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath.

The limit for a traffic offence is 250mcg, and levels above 400mcg lead to prosecution in court.

Miss Drummond said Schwartz was remorseful and had always acknowledged she made an error. “She describes herself as a person who owns her mistakes,” she said.

The magistrate disqualified Schwartz from driving for six months and fined her $400.

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