Man convicted for sex offences against runaway teen

Tandy Robertson has been sentenced in the High Court in Nelson to 2-and-a-half years in prison for degrading offences committed against a young and vulnerable victim. Photo / Supplied

As his young victim sobbed in court, Tandy Robertson appeared to realise the impact of his offending, standing uneasily and apparently exhausted in the dock.

The 42-year-old, who had posed as a 27-year-old when he met the extremely vulnerable runaway, now has more time to reflect on what he did, and on other victims before, during the two-and-a-half years he will spend in prison.

Robertson who has spent a year in custody since his arrest in October last year was sentenced today on three charges of performing an indecent act on a young person, sexual connection with a young person, failing to assist during a search and breaching a supervision order.

In the High Court in Nelson before Justice Christine Grice, the teenage victim was barely audible as she spoke through her tears.

She said that while she had not suffered physical injury she had been in counselling for a year to address the emotional pain which had left her depressed and struggling to cope.

Anzac Park in Nelson where the victim met an associate before following him to the men's shelter. It was there she met Tandy Robertson, who is now in prison for the degrading acts to which he subjected the 15-year-old. Photo / Tracy Neal

“I am very, very angry. I have suffered a lot of sadness from what you did to me, and it has affected a lot of things.”

The victim was only 15 when in May last year she encountered Tandy Gabriel Bryant Robertson, a man with 66 previous convictions – mostly in relation to low-level dishonesty, but in recent years more serious offending, including sexual assault.

“She was particularly vulnerable,” Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber told the court.

“She had run away from her caregivers, she had been drinking, she encountered Mr Robertson and within a very short time he had her alone, and sexually offended, including degrading conduct.”

The girl was reported missing by caregivers where she lived in Blenheim after she hitchhiked to Nelson to meet with associates at Anzac Park.

She followed one of them to the nearby men’s shelter, where he lived, which was where she encountered Robertson, who seven months earlier became subject to a seven-year extended supervision order in the Nelson District Court.

A standard condition included that he was not to associate with or contact a person under the age of 16, except with approval and under supervision.

At the shelter, Robertson told the victim he “really liked her”. They spoke about their ages and the then 40-year-old told her he was 27. She was upfront about being only 15.

Robertson began to kiss and touch the victim, then masturbated in front of her, before forcing an even more degrading act upon her, the court heard.

The manager of the shelter asked her to leave when he arrived the next morning and found her there.

Robertson followed her as she left, and invited her to a friend’s house.

With nowhere else to go, she agreed.

At the house, she was subjected to a further degrading act.

Robertson was arrested following serious allegations about his sexual contact with a young person.

He refused to give police the pin code to his cell phone when they were conducting a search, but other evidence confirmed he had been in contact with the victim up to early October last year, by way of text, voice and video messages up until her 16th birthday and beyond.

The police summary of facts showed that Robertson has a history of non-compliance with the supervision order, for which he received two months in prison following a court appearance in April last year for breaching the order.

It followed an appearance only months before that when he appeared on a charge of breaching a condition of the order.

Jackson Webber said the victim was exemplary of the kind of effects on people who were victims of such offending.

He said that based on past events he believed Robertson still posed a very real risk to the community.

Webber argued that while a cultural report indicated difficulties in Robertson’s life while growing up, with drug and alcohol use a feature, he did not think he was affected by substance abuse at the time of the offending.

“I can’t see evidence of a causal connection between his upbringing and offending of this nature.”

He said aggravating factors included the age discrepancy, that the offending had occurred in two locations, and the kind of sexual connection that took place.

Robertson’s lawyer Tony Bamford acknowledged the degree to which the victim was vulnerable, who for some reason had ended up at the night shelter.

“He didn’t engineer it – she ended up there.”

Bamford noted Robertson’s similar offending in 2012 for which he received home detention, after ending up in the back of a car with a 15-year-old who was part of a group drinking and taking drugs together.

In 2014 Robertson was jailed for assaulting a tourist with the intention of committing sexual violation.

Bamford said in relation to the current offending, Robertson’s early guilty pleas had spared a “very upset victim” the trauma of a trial.

He said in defence of Robertson’s need for rehabilitation as part of the sentence that his upbringing had led to an officially recognised Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which would need to be properly addressed.

“The community can be protected if he addresses these matters.”

Justice Grice said it was important to acknowledge the profound and lasting impact on the victim.

She also said Robertson had sought to minimise matters by suggesting an “utterly implausible” version that he was “helpless against the victim”.

Justice Grice said it was more an acknowledgment there were unresolved issues around his targeting of young, vulnerable females.

Justice Christine Grice told sex offender Tandy Robertson there were unresolved matters around his targeting of young, vulnerable females. Photo / Bevan Conley

She said it was evident Robertson had an “impulse control deficit”, a sense of entitlement and a disregard for court-imposed orders, and that he posed an “above average risk” of further offending, particularly against girls aged 12-16.

Justice Grice also acknowledged Robertson’s turbulent and troubled upbringing but history showed he had still not addressed underlying issues.

From an adjusted starting point of three years and 10 months in prison, Justice Grice added a four-month uplift for previous convictions, then a 20 per cent discount for Robertson’s guilty pleas, and a further 15 per cent discount for Robertson’s personal circumstances to arrive at a sentence of two years and six months in prison.

That led to Robertson’s automatic registration as a child sex offender.