Daughter receives sex tape images

A one-time mayoral candidate emailed his daughter with covert camera images he had filmed of his former wife having sex with another man.

Pat Norris, 53, is also being investigated by Nelson Police over an allegation he hit another of his children - a 12-year-old boy - with a walking stick.

Norris admitted this month one charge of making an intimate visual recording and four charges of publishing it, but the case - first revealed by the Herald on Sunday - has had even wider-reaching repercussions for his former wife and children.

The newspaper had at first been barred from identifying his victim as his wife, Karen Norris, but the Whakatane District Court has since lifted the suppression order.

This week Karen, a 46-year-old chemistry teacher, said although her new employer had been supportive, she feared being investigated by the Teachers Council over the compromising pictures that had been distributed.

Karen had still been living in the marital home in the Bay of Plenty, after they broke up, when he installed cameras in the lounge, kitchen, dining room and her bedroom. She thought they were burglar alarm motion sensors, she said.

Norris had previously run for mayor of Kawerau, but some time after the split he moved to Nelson. The cameras, installed in June 2008, allowed him to spy on her from afar. He emailed images from the cameras to his daughter, Kylie Cotton.

Cotton, 28, said she had not believed her father at first when he told her he had camera footage of her stepmother.

"It was like something you'd imagine on a sci-fi TV show. When the images came through via email I was gobsmacked. I felt sick, disgusted, shocked, concerned at what he had done and sorry for Karen all at the same time."

Cotton chose to support her stepmother of 19 years, and now describes herself as having no father. Nelson Police detective Mark Kaveney said Pat Norris was also being investigated over the alleged assault on a 12-year-old.

Norris said yesterday that he would defend the walking stick allegation and expected any charge to be thrown out of court.

Yesterday Norris, who still wears his wedding ring, said the family has been "ripped apart".

"It's one of the most ugly divorces you've come across - the only thing we haven't done is go out and kill each other."