Haydn Christy to be sentenced in High Court for Hatea Loop sex assault

Police at the scene where a woman jogger was abducted on Whangarei's Hatea Loop walkway in April.

Sentencing for a man who assaulted, abducted and sexually violated a Whangarei woman jogger in an early morning attack has been transferred to the High Court.

Haydn Teoneroa Christy, 40, carried out a vicious sexual attack on a woman who was out on her early-morning jog on the popular Hatea Loop Walkway at 6.30am on April 29.

He pleaded guilty via audio visual link from Auckland on July 28 to four counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, one of abduction for the purpose of sexual violation; two of threatening to kill, and one each of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Christy assaulted the woman and abducted her from the Loop, took her in his car to a city address, sexually violated and seriously assaulted her, then dumped her in a city street.

A member of the public found her and called emergency services just before 7.30am. She spent days in hospital recovering from her injuries.

He was to be sentenced on the charges in the Whanagrei District Court today but the matter has instead been transferred to the High Court - a higher authority - for sentencing.

Christy has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced in the High Court at Whangarei on October 21.

The attack caused outrage in the city and sparked a Reclaim Our Loop rally that saw more than 1000 people take to the loop two days later in a show of solidarity for the woman, one of the organisers said.

The Reclaim Our Loop rally was organised by 10 mothers who run the track regularly, with the aim of making the space feel safe again and to raise money for the victim, who is in her 20s.

The attack also saw the Whangarei District Council bring forward plans to have lighting on part of the loop and to put in CCTV cameras, which are now up and running.