Drug-fuelled offender was naked during home invasions

Mark Anthony Thompson was jailed for four years eleven months for a bizarre series of attacks committed on one night. Photo / NZME

A judge has praised the "resilience" and courage of a woman student who fought off a drug-fuelled attack by a naked man.

"I am very pleased to hear about your resilience," Christchurch District Court Judge Michael Crosbie told the 23-year-old woman. "It makes you not a victim, but a survivor."

The woman had told of having to turn down her chance to study for a masters because of anxiety issues, post-traumatic stress disorder, and her inability to concentrate after the October 2020 attack.

But she ended up with her "dream job" she told the court. In her victim impact statement she said: "It is important for me that I forgive. I want everyone to know that I am okay going forward, despite it all."

She spoke at the sentencing of 46-year-old Mark Anthony Thompson, before Judge Crosbie jailed him for four years eleven months for a bizarre series of attacks carried out during one night when he was affected by drugs and alcohol.

Thompson had pleaded guilty though he has little recollection of the events.

He admitted nine charges in October, including six charges of burglary, two of indecently assaulting women, and one of impeding the breathing of one woman.

He carried out the series of home invasions in Upper Riccarton between 4.30am and 7am on October 29, 2020.

He entered one house but fled through a toilet window when the householder found him opening his bedroom door and yelled at him. At a second house soon after, a woman woke to find him sitting on her bed. She fought back and screamed when he grabbed and held her by the neck, and he ran away.

At the next house, a woman screamed at him when she found his head and hands coming through the curtain as he tried to climb through her bedroom window.

He knocked on a sleep-out door and tried to get the woman inside to let him in to use her phone. She asked him to leave. He kept trying to persuade her to let him in, but finally left.

He was naked from the waist down when he entered a bedroom at another house, removed a duvet from a sleeping woman and placed a pillow over her face as she slept.

The woman woke and told him to get off but he pressed the pillow down harder. The woman could not breathe during the two-minute assault and thought she was going to die, the Crown said.

When she got out from under the pillow, Thompson tried to place his hand over her nose and mouth but she bit him. He fled, bleeding, out through her bedroom window.

About 7am, he knocked on another sleep-out door, still naked from the waist down. When the woman opened the door, he went inside, covered her mouth with his hand and tried to push her towards the bed. She struggled and screamed and managed to escape to the main house. Thompson ran off.

The victim of the pillow attack received a swollen lip and scratches, and needed a medical examination because of her contact with Thompson's blood when she bit him. The other victims received no physical injuries.

The court was told that he had begun taking anabolic steroids as part of his weightlifting training in 1999, but moved on to party drugs, and then methamphetamine. He also had a history of cannabis and alcohol consumption. He had a history of unsuccessful rehabilitation attempts.

Since his pleas, Thompson has written letters of apology to all the survivors for the "inexcusable trauma" he had put them through.

Defence counsel Kristen Gray also acknowledged the courage of the survivors. The victim impact statements had had an impact when they were read to Thompson, she said.

Although Thompson's name had already been published, Gray sought a final suppression order, for reasons that cannot be reported. Judge Crosbie refused suppression but also refused media applications to publish photographs of Thompson taken at the sentencing.