Child sex sting man identified

The High Court has lifted the order suppressing the name of a Christchurch businessman convicted of trying to buy sex from a 12-year-old girl.

He is Craig Steven Mackay, aged 37, a company director.

Mackay was targeted in a police sting operation in April and May last year in which a policewoman posed as a mother who was prepared to let her 12-year-old daughter be used for sex.

Mackay was convicted of the offence on January 28 after a defended hearing the previous month.

At sentencing, Judge Christopher Somerville fined Mackay $2500 and suppressed his name on the grounds he presented a low risk of re-offending and publication of his name would jeopardise the employment of his four staff.

The police appealed against the name suppression decision after the Solicitor-General reviewed the case file.

Justices Graham Panckhurst and Lester Chisholm, in their reserved judgment released yesterday, said that although Mackay might present a lesser risk than other offenders, the risk existed and "given the serious nature of the offence the presumption in favour of open reporting should have prevailed".

The decision was welcomed by KB's Bakeries owner Kim Buckley, who was one of three Christchurch businessmen wrongly identified as the offender by rumours circulating in Christchurch. The others were car dealer Rick Armstrong and furniture manufacturer Paul Hunter.

Mr Buckley said he felt "a bit sorry" for Mackay but the lifting of the suppression removed the risk of others being wrongly maligned and showed businesspeople could not claim any special protection.

Mackay went to ground yesterday. There was no sign of him at his business - where a security guard was stationed - or at his home, which is about 100m from Bromley School.

Board of trustees chairwoman Ailsa McBride said the school should have been told about Mackay's conviction and whereabouts even if his name was not made generally available.

Rumours had been "flying" in the area which had put an "awful cloud over everybody".

In their decision, Justices Panckhurst and Chisholm expressed a "good deal of sympathy" for Mackay because of the momentum the case had gathered since his conviction which would mean his identity would receive heightened attention.

They said that to mitigate that effect, they wanted to put the salient features of Mackay's "true criminality in the public domain", including:

* The fact Mackay had a regular meeting with a prostitute and gratified himself without physical contact and with the prostitute remaining clothed. Sexual discussion and fantasy were of great appeal to him.

* His interest in younger girls, whom he referred to as innocent and flat chested, was expressed in the course of such a regular meeting.

* Mackay's insistence that the mother of the girl consented to her daughter's involvement, which introduced an "air of unreality into the transaction".

* The sting operation removed obstacles which allowed things to proceed further than they would normally have gone.

* Mackay's hesitation at carrying on with the transaction.

* The absence of any material at his home or work showing interest in paedophilia.

"There is now a perception in some quarters," the judges said, "that the respondent is a paedophile when in fact there is no evidence he has actually committed any sexual act on a young person."

- NZPA