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WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
An Auckland man who sexually abused an 18-month-old boy, took peeping Tom videos inside a 6-year-old girl’s bedroom and curated a massive collection of disturbing, illegal videos has been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to 19 different offences involving aberrant sexual behaviour and violence.
Browns Bay resident Nicholas Craig Cooper, 53, sobbed as the mother of his youngest victim described the pain his offences have caused.
“He has no regard for the law ... It sickens me to know what kind of person he is,” she told Auckland District Court Judge Kevin Glubb. “The only way we can remain safe is for Mr Cooper to remain in prison for a long time.”
Cooper, who has previously described his predatory behaviour towards the boy as “evil and most despicable”, shouted out from the courtroom dock: “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
The Crown, however, expressed scepticism that his remorse for the entirety of his offending was genuine.
Prosecutor Pip McNabb pointed to pre-sentence reports in which he was described as still seeming to place some blame on his victims, showing a lack of empathy and even at times seeming to deny some of the facts of the case that he agreed to when he pleaded guilty last year.
Judge Glubb said the 19 charges against Cooper could be divided into three general tranches: sexual offending against children, violence against women and a series of indecent assaults and secret recordings of a teenager.
Nicholas Cooper appears for sentencing in the Auckland District Court on 19 charges involving sexual abuse, violence and child pornography. Photo / Craig Kapitan
A police search of his North Shore home in 2022 resulted in the discovery of 1231 objectionable child sexual exploitation photos or videos on his devices, as well as three objectionable videos involving adult beastiality and one objectionable video of extreme violence showing two teen girls in Brazil pleading for their lives before they were shot in the head.
Other videos showed sadism towards child victims and a baby being raped.
“They make for sorry reading,” the judge said several times as he spent a considerable amount of time highlighting the worst of the videos and detailing the other charges - a necessary part of the sentencing process.
In addition to child sexual exploitation material he made with his own phone regarding the 18-month-old and 6-year-old victims, he also used a hidden camera to film an adult teenager taking a shower. On other occasions, he recorded himself covertly placing sex toys near her while she slept or playing child pornography on a laptop next to her. Additional videos showed him touching her inappropriately or masturbating next to the sleeping teen, who he was not in a relationship with.
The woman, who aspired at the time to become a model, said in a victim impact statement that the abuse destroyed her aspirations and sense of well-being replacing it instead with severe anxiety and depression.
“After it happened, I didn’t care about myself,” she wrote. “I didn’t look after myself. I have felt soulless ever since.”
Nicholas Craig Cooper appears in the Auckland District Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a baby and many other crimes involving sexual and physical violence. Photo / Alex Burton
Another adult victim who he had been in a relationship with described how she was routinely strangled, beaten and tortured by the defendant. One of the beatings, just months prior to his arrest, came after she confronted him about catching him in the act of viewing explicit material.
“Mr Cooper grabbed her by the neck and strangled her multiple times during which she was unable to breathe,” court documents state. “One of those instances occurred after Mr Cooper had forced her to the floor and began squeezing her throat with both hands. Around that time he also used his grip around her neck to lift her head up and then throw or ‘bounce’ her head against the carpeted floor multiple times.
“[The victim] was unable to breathe and went limp, hoping that it would cause Mr Cooper to stop, which he eventually did.”
The woman said in her victim impact statement that she had to quickly learn skills she never would have expected to have needed prior to the relationship, including how to mask bruising with make-up, how to cry in public places unnoticed and how to move her body while being pummelled to lessen the chances of breaking a bone.
She expressed thankfulness that his name suppression had lapsed so that others could be warned.
“You must never be able to hurt anyone again,” she said.
Defence lawyer Michael Kan insisted today that his client, who has no prior convictions, did have genuine remorse for his actions. Cooper’s own childhood trauma contributed to his abhorrent behaviour, the lawyer said, adding that his client’s methamphetamine use was “no doubt a driving force in his offending”.
Judge Glubb said he was “troubled” by reports suggesting a lack of remorse but also referred to the defendant’s letter of apology to the court.
Nicholas Craig Cooper arrived in the Auckland District Court for sentencing wearing a facemask and thick glasses but removed the items immediately after photographers for NZME and Stuff left the hearing. Photo / Craig Kapitan
“You say you’re disgusted by your actions,” the judge noted. “You say you hate yourself far greater than they could ever hate you.”
He allowed small discounts off Cooper’s total sentence for remorse and for his drug addiction and traumatic background.
“To say this has had a huge impact [on the many victims] is to grossly underestimate ...” Glubb said. “This has had a huge and devastating impact on each one of them.”
Upon his eventual release from prison, Cooper will have to register as a sex offender.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
