Haydn Christy abducted a jogger from the Hātea Loop Track near Whangārei and subjected her to a prolonged sexual assault. Composite Photo / NZME
Haydn Christy abducted a jogger from the Hātea Loop Track near Whangārei and subjected her to a prolonged sexual assault. Composite Photo / NZME
A man who abducted a jogger and subjected her to an hours-long sexual attack that has been described as “something out of a horror movie” has shot down his chance of release from prison by trying to cheat a drug test using chamomile tea inside a rubber glove.
HaydnChristy was jailed for 12 years with a minimum non-parole period of eight years in 2016 after pleading guilty to abducting the woman from the Hātea Loop Walkway near Whangārei early one morning.
He has appeared before the Parole Board several times this year and appeared to be set for release, but has been denied parole while he sorts out an appropriate place to live.
Today, he appeared before the board to explain a recent attempt to fool a urine drug test by using cold chamomile tea, which he’d poured into a rubber glove.
Christy told the board he’d had a single puff of cannabis in the weeks before the test after being offered a joint by another prisoner.
“I know I’ve done wrong,” he said, “and I was so close to being released …I’m disappointed in myself, and I’m disappointed that I’m here in this situation at the moment.
Haydn Teoneroa Christy was sentenced to 12 years in jail for an attack on a woman on Whangārei's Loop Walkway. Photo / NZME
“I knew it was a mistake after I had that puff … It didn’t help me with what was going on.”
He forced her to watch pornography before sexually abusing her further and threatening to kill her before dumping her on a city street, where she was found by a member of the public.
The attack sparked a rally in which thousands of residents walked the track in a show of solidarity and to raise money for Christy’s victim. Lights were also installed on previously unlit sections of the track.
Christy pleaded guilty in the High Court at Whangārei to abduction for the purpose of sexual violation, threatening to kill, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and four charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection.
So the Parole Board was “deeply concerned” to hear that he had been smoking cannabis. It doubted his claim of having a single puff, given that he went to such elaborate lengths to try to cheat a drug test.
‘It was just dumb’
Christy told the board he’d used chamomile tea because it was the only thing he could think of that looked like urine. He poured it into a rubber glove because it was the closest thing to hand.
“It was just dumb,” he said. “I was doing so well out there.
Police examine the scene after a Whangārei woman was attacked and abducted on the Hātea Loop Walkway in 2016. Photo / File
“I’ve got to start all over again.”
Christy said he accepted the puff of cannabis because he was in a low place after his planned accommodation outside prison fell through, and after the death of a family member.
“It didn’t help me with what was going on,” he told the board.
“I looked at myself in the mirror afterwards and said, ‘What are you doing?’ You’re nearly there.’”
His lawyer, Regena Sommers, said his offending was like “something out of a creepy and cruel horror movie”, but he’d been working to turn his life around, and his recent conduct was a lapse.
“It was literally just a puff, and a few weeks later, when he was asked to do a drug test, he just panicked,” she said.
“This wasn’t a return to full-blown addiction, it was just a puff.”
However, the board declined Christy’s bid for early release today and will see him again next year.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
