Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
A Taranaki man has been jailed for 12 years and four months for sexual offending against nine victims over five years.
Liam Murray Bridgeman appeared for sentencing at the High Court at New Plymouth on Monday. The 24-year-old had pleaded guilty to 24 charges, 21 of them for sexual offences - including seven for rape and five for unlawful sexual connection.
The majority of the victims of his sex crimes were aged under 16 at the time.
The remaining three charges were for violence, including an assault on the police officer who arrested him.
Five of Bridgeman's victims were at his sentencing, and several victim impact statements were read out - including one by the mother of a victim, and one by a victim herself.
The victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, spoke of their struggles with anxiety, depression, trust issues and being intimate, and of how they blamed themselves for the crimes committed against them.
"I self-harm as a form of dealing with this trauma," one said. "I also ended up in hospital more than once, attempting to end my life. I struggled every day with small things such as attending school, going to the supermarket or even just going for a walk on my own.
"For years, I blamed myself for what happened to me, and I questioned what I could have changed."
One said she was only 14 when she met Bridgeman, and lost her virginity when he raped her.
"To this day, I still feel disgusted when I think about what I went through, and I beat myself up for not realising how wrong the whole situation was."
The young woman - who read her own statement - had a message for Bridgeman, who sat in the dock dressed in a sweatshirt with his head bowed.
"The piece of me you took will slowly regrow, as a stronger, more confident version of me and my fear will fade as I rebuild, and you become a faded memory, a faded thought that I can leave in the past as I move on with my life, because you no longer scare me."
She said if Bridgeman - who had been reluctant to talk to psychologists about his offending, claiming he had little memory of it - was genuine in his guilty plea and felt actual guilt "then I personally forgive you on those terms - that you took ownership of your wrongdoing and the trauma and pain you have caused me".
Crown prosecutor Jo Woodcock said the dominant feature of Bridgeman's offending "was the sheer scale of it".
"This offending represents persistent victimisation of young women by the defendant over a period of about five-and-a-half-years when he was between the ages of 17 and 23, and it is in the Crown submission there's degree of planning and premeditation... and there were features of the offender engaging in manipulative behaviour and luring the victims with a plea for help or support."
Woodcock argued for a starting point of 18 to 20 years' jail, and wanted Bridgeman to serve at least 50 percent of any sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
Defence argues remorse
Defence counsel Paul Keegan acknowledged the victims and their families on behalf of his client. He said Bridgeman, whose family were also in court, was facing sentencing for some of the most serious types of offending "and the aggravating features of it are self-evident".
Keegan argued his client - who had borderline personality disorder - should be credited for his guilty plea, which had saved his victims the ordeal of a trial, his relative youth and the fact he had never been before the courts before.
"Additionally there are some small and early indications that Bridgeman is remorseful for his crimes. He has, however, a very long way to go in that regard."
He argued his client would be getting a double-digit jail term regardless, and setting a minimum jail term could be devastating to someone so young with prospects of rehabilitation.
In sentencing, Justice Karen Grau echoed the prosecution position.
"When I stand back and look at the totality of the offending in this case, the scale of it, and that there appears to have been some premeditation, the manipulation, the ages of the victims and the harm caused, I consider the Crown was correct to say the starting point should be at least 18 years."
Justice Grau gave Bridgeman credit for his guilty pleas and his relative youth. But she was concerned about his reluctance to talk about his offending.
"I bear in mind the clinical psychologist conceptualises the claims of memory problems as possibly a mechanism for avoidance. I also take into account the psychologist has said Bridgeman seems to have a preference for girls below the age of legal consent, and that his behaviour may have a compulsive element to it."
Justice Grau said sometimes sentencing principles and purposes such as denunciation, deterrence and community protection took precedence over mitigating factors such as a defendant's mental health, particularly for serious offending.
"The pre-sentence report has assessed Bridgeman's risk of reoffending and causing harm to others as high and the need to protect the public, more particularly young females against Bridgeman must, in my view, be the prevailing sentencing purpose in this case."
Justice Grau jailed Bridgeman for 12 years and four months, and imposed a minimum jail term of six years before he could apply for parole.
Bridgeman's name would also be added to the child sex offender register for life.
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