Auckland man Luca Fairgray has been found guilty of three charges relating to a sexual relationship he had with a 13-year-old girl.
Serial Auckland sex offender Luca Fairgray‘s latest sentence was “manifestly excessive”, his lawyer has argued in the Court of Appeal this morning.
Fairgray, 22, was found guilty of three charges of sexual conduct with a young person by a jury in February.
In March, he was jailed for 4.5 yearsfor crimes against the 13-year-old girl.
Judge Evangelos Thomas said at sentencing that the victim would be dealing with the effects of Fairgray’s offending for the rest of her life.
Unbeknown to the jury in February, Fairgray had previously been convicted of 10 charges for assaults against six teenage girls, including rape and sexual conduct with a person under 16.
Today, Fairgray’s lawyer Susan Gray said the appellant’s sentence and its starting point was “manifestly excessive”.
Gray submitted “a lack of consistency is a lack of justice” and she pointed to another case where a man who had ongoing sex with one minor and one-off sex with another was given a starting point of 2.5 years in prison.
She acknowledged the pregnancy and abortion that occurred because of Fairgray’s offending, and its distressing impact, but said it was wrong for the judge to attribute the second surgical intervention needed to her client.
Gray also took issue with the Crown’s submission that the victim was vulnerable due to her age, as she said it was inherent in the charge.
The seven-year age gap between Fairgray and the complainant was at the lower end of the spectrum, she said.
“There was no breach of trust.”
Prosecutor Pip McNabb said the real issue before the court today was whether the four-year starting point was available to Judge Thomas.
She told the Justices the victim’s vulnerability was about much more than just her age and included her autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) diagnosis.
“At the lowest end of that seven-year age gap we have a 13-year-old girl, so she had just become a teenager.”
At the other end of the spectrum, she said, was an educated 20-year-old male.
She did not agree that Fairgray’s own diagnoses of autism and ADHD tempered the difference between the pair.
His offending was “calculated and careful”, she said, and he actively pursued the girl despite knowing her age.
McNabb submitted that while the second surgery could not be directly attributed to the appellant, it was his actions of having unprotected sex with her that led to it.
The Crown maintained that there was some efforts by him to manipulate the victim.
The Justices have reserved their decision.
At sentencing, prosecutor Robin McCoubrey said the aggravating features of Fairgray’s crimes were the duration of his offending and the vulnerability of the victim.
Luca Fairgray pictured when he testified in the Auckland District Court earlier this year.
In a victim impact statement read by prosecutor Rosemary Hayden at the time, the survivor said what happened damaged her relationship with her mother and brother and she struggled to trust people.
Gray said in March it has been a “difficult and sad case” for everyone involved.
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, media, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
