David Charteris' appeal to have sentence for child sex offences reduced fails

David Charteris was Victim Support's southern practice manager. Photo / Otago Daily Times

The former head of southern Victim Support who was jailed for 14 years for sexually abusing a pre-teen boy may die behind bars.

But that fact was not enough to persuade the High Court that 66-year-old David John Charteris should have his sentence reduced.

In a recently released decision from Justice Gerald Nation, he dismissed the appeal and Charteris' challenge to the legitimacy of the convictions.

Counsel Josh Lucas argued his client – who suffered from prostate cancer – would likely die before he had served his sentence.

Judge Raoul Neave, who found Charteris guilty of eight sex charges following a judge-alone trial in 2019, knocked nine months off the end sentence handed down at the Christchurch District Court to recognise the man's ailing health.

That, Justice Nation ruled, was appropriate.

He took a similar view of the 12 months subtracted for Charteris' lack of previous convictions – a matter that was also challenged by Lucas.

The sex offender headed the southern region's Victim Support team and spent a decade at the organisation from 2008.

While the offending took place in 1999 and 2000, the organisation revealed it had been anonymously informed about the historical sexual abuse but did not pass that on to police.

Chief executive Kevin Tso told the Otago Daily Times after sentencing that it ''could have handled this situation better''.

The victim's statement exposed the harm Charteris had caused by his predatory behaviour.

''David knew from life experience I was easy pickings and yet he exploited that in the most despicable way,'' the victim said.

The abuse had resulted in ''a life sentence of guilt, confusion, anger and turmoil''.

Charteris must have known the positions of trust he held in the community would have acted as a barrier to him coming forward, he told the court.

When the boy's parents split up in the late 1990s, Charteris intervened.

He helped the mother with childcare and took her son on excursions, the court heard at trial.

The defendant betrayed her trust ''in the most terrible way'', Judge Neave said.

Through 1999, the boy stayed overnight at his abuser's Christchurch home several times, which was when the violations began.

The victim estimated he was violated in the most painful way up to a couple of dozen times.

There were other trips — several to the Waimakariri River and one to Banks Peninsula — where Charteris abused the boy after finding isolated areas where they would not be seen.

Five years after the long period of abuse, the boy's mother found out what had happened and a police complaint came shortly afterwards.

It was, however, 11 years before the victim was interviewed again by police and the allegations were levelled at Charteris.