Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Jail for abuse of vulnerable woman

Hawkes Bay Today
18 Dec, 2015 11:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Illegal sex has never been far away in the life of 63-year-old Hastings man Douglas Harold McInnes - when he's not in prison.

So when a court order blocked him from getting too close to children, he wooed a 29-year-old woman with a reading age of 7, put her on a contract to keep it a "secret deal for life", and awarded her points for the sexual acts he wanted.

It happened while he was on an extended supervision order targeting protection of children, in light of previous convictions dating back to 1966 - when he was 14 - but yesterday in the High Court in Napier Justice David Collins said evidence and reports after the latest offending highlighted McInnes was a high risk to any group of vulnerable females.

With defence counsel Matthew Phelps accepting that a prison sentence of at least five years was likely, Justice Collins accepted Crown prosecutor Rebecca Guthrie's call for preventive detention, meaning McInnes might never be released.

He will serve a minimum five years in jail before he can be considered for release, which can only be done with significant treatment and assessment, and evidence that he would no longer be a risk. But according to one report before the judge, McInnes had said that if he was sentenced to preventive detention he would "give up" and not take part in the programmes required for his release.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

McInnes denied the latest offending, claiming sexual advances had been made by the woman, who lived with her husband who was also impaired.

But in Napier District Court in July he was found guilty on four charges of sexual exploitation and abuse of a female with significant impairment, for repeated offences over several months at several locations, including the woman's home, and his own home where he lived with his ex-wife.

Justice Collins was told McInnes grew up amidst violence and sexual offending, went into welfare where he was also abused, and was sexualised well before he was 14, when he went into detention for two years for assaulting and indecently assaulting a girl in her young teens.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Three years later he was found unfit to plead on charges of committing indecent acts with girls aged under 10. In 1974 he was jailed for more offences against a young girl, and in 2002 he was sentenced to six years' jail for offences on a girl which started when she was aged 7.

In the latest events he had befriended the victim and her husband, to the extent they had some reliance on him. Feeling governed by the contract, she kept the secret until she told her pastor, saying she could not lie in church.

Police could not find the contract said to have been signed by the woman but in McInnes' home they did find a draft document consistent with what they had been told.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction

Premium
Opinion

Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction
Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction

Artist follows in his grandmother's footsteps to craft a piece for Bay wine auction.

17 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble
Opinion

Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble

17 Jul 06:00 PM
Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

17 Jul 06:02 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP