Judge imposes 13-year term for 'terror' offending on six victims

Rikki Ross Kake's 30 offences included kidnapping, assaults, and sexual assaults involving a total of six victims including children. Photo / 123RF

A 40-year-old man's "gratuitous violence, cruelty and sexual offending against six victims - including children - has drawn a 13-year jail term.

Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan said the victims would face lifelong consequences, it was clear, from Rikki Ross Kake's offending.

Kake admitted 30 charges in January.

After hearing the victim impact statements during today's sentencing, the judge said the victims were doing their utmost to come to terms with what had happened to them.

The fact that Kake's violence was drug-induced did not excuse it, said the judge. He considered the violence may have been "learned behaviour" from Kake's own childhood, according to details in a cultural report.

Crown prosecutor Pip Currie said the victims' statements in court described terror and made chilling reading. They showed behaviour that involved "horror, gratuitous violence, and cruelty".

"One cannot help but be moved by the probable life-long damage the victims will have to endure," she said.

Defence counsel Serina Bailey said Kake had been angry and often under the influence of drugs. She suggested the starting point should be 16 to 17 years, while the Crown suggested 21 years.

She said that in Kake's pre-sentence probation interview, he had expressed remorse. He had also written a note to the victims, saying that he apologised and, "I am ashamed of what I have done and will live with it for the rest of my life".

A woman tearfully told the court that meeting Kake with his violent behaviour had been a nightmare. She now suffered from insecurity issues and had anxiety attacks.

The children involved in his offending were struggling. In one victim impact statement, Kake was told: "So much damage was done that it will take a village to heal the trauma you have inflicted."

One of the child victims told him: "We hope you spend a very long time in jail."

A boy he assaulted told the court: "I have anger issues now, which I don't like."

Kake admitted repeatedly assaulting a 9-year-old boy, including punching and kicking him, and locking him in a car for a long period without food. The boy became weak, and collapsed.

The charges included threatening to kill or cause grievous bodily harm, kidnapping a woman, unlawful sexual connection, doing an indecent act on a girl aged under 16, indecently assaulting a girl aged under 16, possession of cannabis for supply, and possession of cannabis oil.

A later group of charges includes eight of injuring a boy with intent to injure, impeding breathing, assault, indecent assaults on a girl, and attempted rape.

The Crown earlier presented to the court a summary of fact detailing a series of assaults, including choking with a cord, hitting with implements, or punches including one that knocked out a woman's tooth.

The offending took place at North Canterbury locations and in Northland and Tauranga from 2016 to 2021.

Judge Callaghan imposed a 13-year jail term with no non-parole term. He had reduced the sentence for Kake's guilty pleas, his remorse and personal factors.