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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
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A 30-year-old man who
tried to extort $300,000 from his former babysitter over an allegation of
historical sexual abuse was sentenced to 11 months in prison yesterday. The man, who was
granted permanent name suppression partly to protect his family, had earlier
admitted blackmail. In the High Court at
Nelson, Justice Wild said the defendant visited the victim at his workplace
in January and accused him of sexually molesting him when he was much
younger. When the victim denied
the allegation, the defendant told him to "find the money" or he
would tell police of the abuse. The defendant phoned
the man two weeks later and repeated the threats, telling him to deposit the
cash into a bank account. The blackmail victim then contacted the police. When confronted by
police, the defendant confessed to blackmailing the man. He acknowledged that
he should have contacted the police with his allegations rather than try to
extort money from the victim. Justice John Wild said
the offending was "out of character" for the man who had excellent
qualifications and no previous convictions. "I accept your
explanation. You had bottled up your anger about what you say the victim did
to you. You explained that now you have children of your own the idea of
sexual abuse became totally unacceptable to you and you decided to do something
about it." But Justice Wild said
the court viewed blackmail as "insidious and vicious". He sentenced the
defendant to 11 months in prison, taking into account the man's
remorsefulness and early guilty plea. He gave the man leave to apply for home
detention and deferred the start of the sentence for two months. |
