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A fugitive with a flair for the outrageous is the lead suspect in a heart-stopping campaign of harassment - yet appears to have eluded capture again.
Bryant was arraigned on charges of wounding with reckless disregard, possession of a knife and three charges of harmful digital communication. Then, granted bail at a later court appearance, he disappeared.
He has now reappeared in Kerikeri in Northland, where he was living at a rural lifestyle property, keeping a low profile while selling police scanners, novelty penis-shaped sweets and penis-shaped chilli peppers.
He also kept busy running the OnlyFans website for a nearby porn actress, who the Herald tracked down to a cabin in a paddock of alpacas where she was in bed with her two favourite chickens.
His two former housemates told the Herald in interviews that Bryant recently became angry when he was refused a ride to buy alcohol, shouting aggressively and at one stage punching a hole in a hallway wall.
They claim the outburst led to Bryant being told to move out.
They also claim that in the month since then, they have endured hundreds of phone calls in response to website inquiries made in their names - and a slew of direct debits they never set up.
Bryant’s history has come as a shock to both, who say they had no idea he was wanted by police or that he would react strongly to being asked to leave.
‘I thought it was a death call’
The homeowner said the first of a long series of unwanted calls came on June 10 when a funeral director rang, introducing himself as calling from Waikato.
“I’ve got children in the Waikato,” said the homeowner. “I actually dropped my phone. I thought it was a death call. That first phone call - the whole world fell out of me.”
The funeral director explained he had received an inquiry from his website’s contact form to call and help arrange the funeral of the homeowner - who was said to have a terminal illness.
“Then my phone rang and rang and it didn’t stop ringing for a week.” And that, he said, was only the first tranche of confusing calls.
James Matthew Bryant surrendered in 2021 after a helicopter ride, bubbles and oysters.
Just hours after the homeowner received the first call, the female housemate also started receiving calls in response to website contact forms. In this instance, the woman was getting calls from and being charged by gyms she had not joined.
The two told the Herald it was their belief Bryant was behind the calls as he was the only common denominator they shared. In some instances, they were targeted using combinations of their personal information they believed only Bryant would know.
One call came directly to the homeowner from Bryant. “He rang on WhatsApp and ranted down the phone at me,” the homeowner said.
At the time Bryant left, a neighbour dicovered the $5000 he was about to take to the bank had disappeared from his kitchen table. He has reported the loss to police, a mystery that has not been solved.
As the weeks passed - up until last week - the calls came in waves. Funeral directors were replaced by tradies, taxi companies, florists, headstone makers and catering businesses, among others, with the common feature that those calling were responding to a webform inquiry.
There was also money gone from their accounts after they were signed up to gyms with forms that allowed direct debits to be approved.
The early withdrawals were able to be reversed and banking orders changed to block further withdrawals, but that resulted in attempts registering as failed payments. The homeowner was concerned this would impact his credit rating.
Bryant came in from the cold
The saga began about 18 months ago when the homeowner noticed his housemate taking plates of food covered in tin foil out in the evenings.
It emerged she was bringing food to Bryant, whom she had known since intermediate school in Orewa. At the time, he was living in the nearby Puketi Forest campground, having bought a Department of Conservation hut pass.
Again, this mirrored his previous time on the run when Bryant walked two days into the bush to stay in a hut for about five weeks, apparently passing time doing yoga.
Hearing Bryant was living at the camping ground, the homeowner offered him a room but the fugitive opted for a mattress in his garage in return for some cash to cover expenses and odd-jobs around the home.
The offer was eventually accepted, with Bryant moved in and largely sticking to the deal while carrying out his unique commercial ventures.
Those included creating a website through which he sold penis-shaped lollies, branded as “Eat A Bag Of Dicks” and sold after a viral marketing campaign in which Bryant sent the sweets to radio hosts and other high-profile people.
Penis-shaped lolly products sold by fugitive James Bryant.
He also sold chillis online with the pitch to customers that the dried spicy peppers were penis-shaped. The housemate recalled him buying the chillis at the supermarket to send, and that few resembled penises.
She claimed he also sold scanners able to pick up police frequencies - and constantly listened to one himself.
The housemate recalled packaging the penis-shaped lollies with Bryant with both - at his insistence - wearing surgical gloves because he was “paranoid” about being tracked down.
While it struck her as unusual, she said she had never considered he was evading existing charges.
She said he had always had a streak of wild creativity and genius. He had made the most of that selling surgical masks during Covid-19 and managing websites for people, including local porn star Lake Russell, 60, who has an OnlyFans page.
“He has these amazing ideas. He can make money out of thin air.”
The housemate said Bryant was the “class clown” at school and left school early, ending up in prison. “He just changed in prison. He got very dark.”
The years that followed brought a descent into alcoholism and frequent brushes with the law. Among items left by Bryant was a box of photographs that included several police mugshots, apparently released to him through the Privacy Act.
Lake Russell, who asked that her real name not be used, said she was in touch with Bryant, who continued to manage her OnlyFans page.
The Herald found Lake Russell lounging in bed mid-afternoon in a single-room cabin in a paddock of alpacas with her two favourite chickens for company.
“He’s my friend and we’re in contact but I don’t want to know where he is,” she said. Prior to moving into the house from which he had recently been evicted, she said he had lived in a shed on her property.
Lake Russell said Bryant had told her about the money missing from the neighbour but denied being involved in its disappearance.
She said he had enough money coming through insurance to not need to steal it.
However, she said she believed Bryant could be behind the campaign of harassment against his former housemates.
Porn star Lake Russell says she's in contact with fugitive James Bryant.
“I believe he got really hurt by the people up the road so he just wants to get back at them.” She said he was upset at being told to leave the house after his outburst.
She said she doubted he would be caught until he was ready to hand himself in.
“He’s so much smarter than everyone else. You can’t be on the run for three years if you’re not smart. He’s my best friend and I love him.”
The Herald asked that Bryant be contacted to ask for his side of the story. Lake Russell said she would do so but Bryant has yet to emerge.
The neighbour who was missing $5000 told the Herald Bryant was “on the suspect list”. He said he was known for wandering the neighbourhood and stood out while doing so because it was a quiet, semi-rural street of lifestyle properties.
The neighbour said he believed the wider community needed to be told by police that Bryant was on the loose.
“He’s a serial offender and the public needs to know. He comes across nice and friendly. It disarms people. That’s the way he operates.”
James Matthew Bryant, who has eluded police for three years, in a 2021 mugshot when he surrendered after a helicopter ride, oysters and champagne.
In 2021, Bryant surrendered to police with the support of career criminal Arthur Taylor, for whom he managed a website. The surrender was reported in the New York Times, which detailed how Bryant was collected from a bush hut by helicopter, devouring Bluff oysters and champagne organised by Taylor before giving himself up while wearing a Gucci T-shirt and Versace sunglasses.
A police spokesperson confirmed Bryant was wanted on charges of breaching community work, failure to answer bail, wounding with intent and assault with a weapon. The spokesperson said Bryant was last known to be in Waipapa, Northland, was actively being sought and was known to move between regions, including Auckland, Northland and Southland.
Police have asked anyone who knows of Bryant’s whereabouts to call them on 105, quoting file number 240529/4348, or anonymously on Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
