WARNING: This story discusses sexual offending
A recidivist rapist has avoided an indefinite jail term after a judge found he would be unlikely to reoffend when he is released, given his old age.
Darryl Grant Bridgeman will be 71 when his now 22-year prison term comes to an end in 2041, the result of three separate sentences, including the rapes of two tourists in 2006 and 2020.
Bridgeman was sentenced in the High Court at Hamilton this morning after a jury found him guilty of historical sexual offending against two young boys.
Justice Peter Andrew said the offending had significantly affected the victims, whose lives had been blighted by drugs and alcohol to try to mask what they’d been subjected to.
He labelled Bridgeman’s behaviour as “predatory and persistent”, given it spanned five years for one of the victims.
Bridgeman sat with his head down throughout the hearing, before putting his head in his hands and then lifting his jersey up over his face as Justice Andrew went through the details of the case.
Bridgeman is currently a serving prisoner after being jailed for nine years in June 2020 for the rape of a tourist in a Hauraki Plains cemetery, and a further seven years and two months for the 2006 rape of another woman on a Raglan walking track.
His sentencing today related to sexual offending against two boys in the 1990s, crimes he still denies.
Crown prosecutor Jacinda Hamilton pushed for a preventive detention sentence but conceded that Bridgeman’s age upon eligibility for release would be a factor.
She also sought a higher minimum non-parole period, of two-thirds, for the prison time Justice Andrew would ultimately decide on.
Hamilton was dubious about Bridgeman’s willingness to engage in rehabilitation, given his “proclivity to offending against the most vulnerable members of our community, children”.
“He presents as a greater risk than he has previously,” she said.
Bridgeman’s counsel Glen Prentice argued for the judge to step back from preventive detention, despite Justice Christine Gordon narrowly avoiding sentencing Bridgeman to it in 2022.
He was scathing of Corrections, which hadn’t completed a pre-sentence report, despite his client being in Spring Hill prison the whole time.
“It’s not acceptable for probation not to have interviewed him,” he said, adding there was no clear evidence of what his client needed because of the report not being done.
Bridgeman hadn’t had a chance to complete any rehabilitative courses because of charges being laid regarding the historical offending.
Given his current cumulative prison term, he suggested the judge issue a further five-year term for the charges.
“He’s not going anywhere without completing a sex offender programme,” Prentice said.
Even at the end of a 21 or 22-year term, he would likely be put on an extended supervision order, he said, which would closely monitor his movements.
Although there was no pre-sentence report, Justice Andrew considered three specialist reports that found Bridgeman had a difficult-to-treat personality dysfunction.
The risks of that dysfunction would increase if he were in unstable social circumstances, using alcohol and enduring social isolation, the judge said.
Justice Andrew was also concerned Bridgeman hadn’t taken any steps to address the causes of his offending.
While Justice Andrew found the grounds for issuing a preventive sentence were made out, he accepted Bridgeman’s age on release would modify his risk of further offending and, by then, he would have completed several programmes behind bars.
On two charges of indecent behaviour between a man and a boy and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, he sentenced Bridgeman to a further five years’ jail, with a 66% minimum non-parole period.
That will be served on top of his 16-year, two-month term for his previous rapes.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.