But things got heated when Simon’s counsel, James Olsen, was talking with the judge about his behaviour while on remand in prison and how he hadn’t engaged with the Department of Corrections for a pre-sentence report.
Judge Tompkins noted he’d been the subject of three prison misconducts in as many months, which prompted Simon to yell out “Oh f****** b*******”.
“I haven’t had any misconducts in at least a year”, Simon said, adding that allegations like that were why he no longer trusted or engaged with the department.
As the judge tried to talk, Simon said, “Go f*** yourself”, and said he wanted to head back down to the cells and would accept whatever sentence he was given.
It later turned out Simon was correct and the incident was a miscommunication.
Victim strangled until close to blackout
The Hamilton man’s offending occurred at a woman’s emergency motel accommodation in Cambridge late in 2021 after she contacted him via social media.
Simon repeatedly punched the victim around the head and face before strangling her so hard that she lost control of her bladder and almost lost consciousness.
While being strangled, the woman tried to reach out for a hammer but Simon got to it first and struck her three times on the head, albeit not with significant force.
There was a slight reprieve when Simon grabbed a water-soaked hand towel to clean the blood off her face.
However, when the woman refused to perform oral sex, due to the assault, Simon then carried out two sexual assaults.
He then told the victim that if she went to the police, he would arrange for someone to kill her.
‘Ongoing fear still to this day’
Crown solicitor Rebecca Guthrie said the strangulation, to the point where she lost consciousness “or felt like she was”, together with the repetitive strikes to the head with the hammer, took the assault “to a different category”.
She said there was an element of pre-meditation, home invasion-style offending, her vulnerability, along with his threats to try and dissuade her from reporting the physical and violent assaults to police.
She asked Judge Tompkins to take a start point of 13 to 14 years.
“The impact is significant ... psychological impact and also the sense of safety and security and the ongoing fear she still has to this day.”
Simon also had a lengthy criminal history, stretching 40 years, including drug offences, noting that he was using meth and drunk at the time of the offending.
Guthrie noted Simon’s refusal to engage with the Department of Corrections for the preparation of sentencing reports “or in this process at all” and was deemed at high risk of reoffending and harm to others.
Given the various serious factors, she urged Judge Tompkins to issue a minimum non-parole period.
Conviction history ‘ancient’
Simon’s counsel, James Olsen, said while they accepted several aggravating features, he disagreed there was pre-meditation or that it was a home invasion.
“He didn’t break into the home and was not unlawfully there.”
Simon had a lengthy criminal history, although none for sexual offending, they were “well aged and I’d go as far to say, ancient”.
There was also “no direct evidence” of meth use that evening, and the crown had only surmised that due to meth being the catalyst for previous offending.
Judge Tompkins took the strangulation charge as the lead, given how she lost, or nearly lost, consciousness.
He noted Simon’s misconducts for sparring in the yard and setting off a sprinkler.
Given the circumstances of the charges and no mitigating factors, his start point of 10 and a half years in jail was also his end point.
He also ordered Simon to serve a 40% minimum non-parole period.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.
