Jessie Morgan appeared for sentencing after admitting a charge of sexual connection with a young person. Photo / 123rf
WARNING: This story discusses sexual offending and may be distressing for some readers
A girl has changed from a vibrant young teen to someone riddled with anxiety and who has lost trust in people after an older man had sex with her.
The girl’s mother told Judge Glen Marshall in the Hamilton District Court that Jessie Morgan had destroyed her daughter physically, psychologically and spiritually after he met her several years ago.
Morgan, 22, went to trial in April this year, defending six charges, including strangulation, rape and assault with a weapon, but admitted a charge of sexual connection with a young person.
The jury acquitted him of all charges he defended.
At his sentencing on the sexual connection charge, the mother read a statement on behalf of herself and her daughter, in which she said the girl, who has automatic name suppression, was now a different person.
“From a young age, [she] was a warm, caring, kind, and lovely girl.
“She was always smiling with an infectious sense of humour ... never taking life too seriously.”
But then she met Morgan.
“The actions of Jessie Morgan have impacted all [areas] of her development.”
Watching her struggle with the trauma and to function at times was “one of the most challenging things we have ever had to deal with”, the woman said.
“Seeing our daughter disappear and become severely unwell was devastating.”
She lost trust in people and struggled to be around men.
“There were times when she couldn’t eat, could not sleep, she woke up with nightmares ... and began having severe anxiety.
“She no longer felt safe in her own body. She wanted the pain to stop.”
However, her daughter’s biggest driver in coming forward to the police was to ensure that such incidents would not happen to anybody else.
Crown prosecutor Raewyn Greenhalgh suggested a starting point of two to three years’ jail, and urged the judge to limit Morgan’s guilty plea discount, because the victim and her family still had to endure a trial.
A pre-sentence report did not recommend an end sentence of home detention because of reports of family harm incidents, so Greenhalgh pushed for a short term of imprisonment.
She said Morgan had more life experience than the victim at the time of the offending.
Defence counsel Nadine Baier disputed that her client had exerted any sexual pressure on the victim to the extent that it would be an aggravating feature.
However, she accepted the impact of the offending on her.
“We can’t shy away from that.”
Baier suggested a starting point of two years and two months, while reminding the judge that her client had offered to plead guilty to the charge before trial, in December 2023.
“It was very well known [to the Crown] that he accepted having sex [with the victim] knowing that she was under 16,”
She pushed for a 20% discount for Morgan’s guilty plea.
Baier said Morgan “wasn’t overly sophisticated” for his age at the time.
“His actions can be categorised as impulsive, opportunistic, and with little consequential thought at the time.”
He’d written a brief letter of remorse, which he had struggled with, as he had been acquitted of the other charges and then had to come to terms with his guilty plea “in his own mind”, she said.
Morgan has been with his current partner for “some years”, and the couple were expecting a child.
“He is showing the court that he has been able to maintain that without any issue.”
Baier submitted that an end sentence of two years of imprisonment, or less, could be reached, once all the mitigating features were taken into account, and community detention and intensive supervision could then be considered.
However, responding to Morgan’s letter, Greenhalgh said it focused more on how the offending had affected him, rather than the victim.
Judge Marshall said that, given Morgan’s age, he was “more savvy about things” than the victim.
He said it took a great deal of courage for the victim’s mother to read her statement to the court.
“It really brings home offending of this kind.
“It doesn’t just affect one person; the whole family, community, as was rightly expressed.”
The judge took a starting point of two years and six months’ imprisonment before allowing a 20% discount for his plea, 15% for his youth, and 5% for his upbringing, which he said was “punctuated by huge instability”.
That got it down to 18 months.
He converted the prison sentence to one of nine months’ home detention, which would be served in the Wellington region.
The judge said it was feasible that Corrections had concerns about Morgan’s family dynamics at home, but said home detention was the appropriate option.
However, he warned Morgan that, if he breached his sentence, he would be jailed.
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.