Ex-police officer Jamie Foster jailed for raping colleague in Northland, gets parole

Former cop Jamie Foster, jailed for six years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a colleague at a Northland motel, has been granted parole. Photo / Sam Hurley

A constable jailed for six years after being found guilty of raping a sleeping colleague at a Northland motel, has been granted parole.

Jamie Anthony Foster, 31, was convicted in March 2020, after a jury in Auckland found him guilty of indecently assaulting and sexually violating his female workmate.

The pair were staying at a Kerikeri motel with a group of officers, assigned to help police the 2019 Waitangi Day events at the Treaty Grounds.

The group was partying, drinking alcohol stored in a room Foster was sharing with a male colleague.

CCTV footage from that night, played during the trial, showed drunken, lewd behaviour by several officers at the motel - including a senior sergeant exposing himself and drinking from a hollowed-out police baton.

The jury accepted evidence Foster groped the woman when she went into the room to get a drink, and that she had told him to stop. She later returned to her room at the end of the night, but woke about 2.30am to find him raping her.

Foster's defence at trial was that the sex was consensual - that he believed the woman's reaction to the first incident meant "not yet" and was an invitation for him to go to her room later.

He appealed against his convictions to the Court of Appeal on the grounds there had been a miscarriage of justice due to evidential and procedural matters at trial, but the argument was rejected.

The Supreme Court denied two applications by Foster for leave to have his appeal heard by it.

The Parole Board is yet to release its written decision, but has confirmed Foster was granted parole earlier this week. It is understood he will be released from prison within the next few weeks, having served a third of the six-year sentence imposed on him.

Under 2002 legislation, offenders sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment are eligible for parole after serving a third of their sentence, unless they were given a longer minimum non-parole period by the sentencing court.

A parole board spokesperson said that in granting parole, the most important consideration for the board is community safety. By law, the board must decide that the offender does not pose an "undue risk" to the safety of the community.

In assessing undue risk, the board must consider the likelihood, nature, and seriousness of any potential further offending.

There is a variety of individual factors the board considers when considering eligibility for parole. These can vary significantly from person to person based on their individual circumstances, the spokesperson said.