Northland man pleads guilty to raft of sexual offences against boys

Northland man Ryan Mark Burrows pleaded guilty to 23 charges involving sexual abuse of boys when he appeared in the High Court at Whangārei on Thursday.

A Northland man has pleaded guilty to a raft of charges relating to sexual offending against young boys and supplying some of them with alcohol and cannabis.

Ryan Mark Burrows, 33, appeared in the High Court at Whangārei on Thursday before Justice Timothy Brewer.

Burrows pleaded guilty to 23 charges, related to offending against 15 boys aged 10-17 in the South Island and Northland.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual connection with a young person, (which has a 10 year maximum jail term); 12 charges of doing an indecent act on a young person (10 years jail); three of receiving commercial sexual services from a person under 18 (seven years jail); two counts of indecent assault (seven years jail) and one each of doing an indecent act on a young person aged under 12 (10 years); supplying cannabis to a person under 18 (eight years) and wilfully attempting to obstruct the course of justice (seven years).

Burrow's lawyer Jonathan Eaton, QC, originally asked that his client's name be suppressed for 48 hours to allow him time to inform his family of the charges. However, Justice Brewer said the public had the right to know what was happening in court in a timely manner and instead gave interim suppression for six hours to allow Burrows to tell his family. That has now lapsed.

The summary of facts for the case said 17 of the charges were representative, meaning the offences against that person were committed on more than one occasion, and in one case 11 times.

Burrows gave some of the victims money, food, alcohol or cannabis or other items such as video games and concert tickets.

He met a 13-year-old boy through a social dating app.

He got some of the boys to send him naked pictures, with the offending happening between 2012 and 2018, when one of the boys reported him to police.

Burrows was arrested in September 2018 at Auckland Airport after returning from a trip to Canada.

When arrested and interviewed by police, Burrows declined to comment.

For the wilfully attempting to obstruct the course of justice charge Burrows contacted the boy who made the complaint to police and got him to delete naked photographs of the victim and Burrows from the victim's phone.

Crown Prosecutor Richard Annandale asked for a full pre-sentence report to be done before Burrow's sentencing.

Justice Brewer said due to Covid restrictions, which prevented judges travelling out of Auckland, he could not set a firm date for sentencing and instead remanded Burrows in custody for a callover in the High Court at Whangārei on October 21.

Justice Brewer convicted Burrows and issued him with a first strike warning under the Three Strikes legislation. This means that if Burrows is convicted of another serious violent offence - except murder - he will have to serve the full term of that sentence.

If he is convicted of murder he will have to serve the full life term imprisonment, unless it would be manifestly unjust to impose that sentence.