A Clive man who offered teenage boys jobs and money to groom them as his sexual conquests was yesterday sentenced to nine years in jail.
Confessed bisexual Robert John Brown, 42, will serve a minimum six years without parole after the sentencing by Justice Christopher Allan in the High Court in Napier.
But, as Brown continued to deny the offences and specialists had assessed his chances of re-offending as high, he could expect to serve much more than the minimum period, the judge said.
"You have narrowly avoided preventive detention," Justice Allan said.
In February, a district court jury found Brown guilty on four charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, four of indecent assault, and one of inducing a male aged under 16 to perform an indecent act on him. The charges related to offences against three boys.
He was sentenced to nine years on each charge of sexual violation and two years on each remaining charge, all to be served concurrently.
He had been in custody on remand as the Crown successfully applied to have the case promoted to the High Court to consider preventative detention.
Justice Allan decided against the application by Crown prosecutor Jonathan Krebs, but said it was a "finely balanced case".
The offences were revealed after Brown performed oral sex on one boy in a car on a riverbank early one night last April.
The boy told a friend's mother as soon as Brown took him home, saying he had been raped. But the woman faced even more devastating news when her own son revealed he had been a victim of even more serious offences dating back a year.
Brown denied committing any sex acts with the woman's son, who was the complainant in seven of the nine charges, and also denied committing any act with the third complainant.
The defendant conceded the act at the riverbank had happened, but denied he had offered the boy $100 and claimed it had been the boy who initiated the sex.
During the trial, two others gave evidence of being propositioned by Brown, and a man gave evidence of an offence which had been behind Brown's only previous conviction 10 years earlier, when Brown was given a suspended prison sentence and placed on supervision.
In all cases, Brown had begun his grooming of boys by initiating intense discussions about sex and his own preferences soon after meeting them. With some, he developed the conversations by text messaging.
In court yesterday, the boy who had suffered the most repeated offending, sat with his parents on one side of the court, and Brown's widowed mother sat on the other.
Justice Allan said it had been assessed that the effects on boys of their age was more severe than it would be on younger boys, who might be able to forget. Brown's victims possibly never would forget, the judge said.
One said his life had been destroyed, and he had suffered serious depression to the point of committing self-harm. Another's education went into decline to the point where he dropped out of school. His parents had suffered financially amid the disruption of their family.
The third had become afraid of being in lone male company, and had become distant from his father.
Defence counsel Tony Snell said Brown had come to accept the verdicts, and that he should not attempt to engage in any sexual activity with males under 20, but the judge said it was only a glimmer of an indication of responsibility.
The judge also said a suggestion by Brown that the primary victim had been intent only on ruining him and claiming ACC, was "insulting and offensive".
The boy's father, commenting on the penalty, said: "It's not what I would have liked, but I am happy that finally his name is out there."
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