David Russell Bond (69), of Cromwell, pleaded guilty to indecent assault 18 months ago and finally came before the Dunedin District Court for sentencing this afternoon following numerous delays.
Defence counsel Anne Stevens QC said the wait, which included more than 14 months on electronically-monitored bail, had been “extremely stressful” for her client.
“He nearly went insane,” she said.
Judge Michael Turner, taking that into account, sentenced Bond to four months' home detention and ordered him to pay $4000 to the victim.
He said the defendant’s explanation of his sex crimes showed “a significant degree of minimisation and lack of full acknowledgement of your sexual deviancy”.
During the period of offending – February 1997 to December 1999 – the defendant was a teacher at Otago Boys' High School.
On numerous occasions, police said, while the victim was watching or playing basketball at the school gym, the defendant moved in.
Bond would stand ‘‘really close’’ to the boy, who was between 13 and 15 at the time, and deliberately brush his hand against the victim’s shorts.
He brushed the boy’s penis on the outside of his clothing, the court heard.
“This was a regular occurrence in the gymnasium [and the victim] estimated it could have happened as many as four times,” court documents said.
Bond refused to comment when initially confronted by police over the allegations.
Judge Michael Turner said the impact on the victim had been devastating.
“He chose to leave school every chance he got because he feared he would run into you and you would hurt him again,” he said.
The victim, the court heard, lost interest in his studies and gave up basketball to limit the possibility of seeing Bond.
In a statement, he wrote that he had suicidal thoughts from the age of 15 and through adulthood and had experienced confusion about his sexuality because of the trauma he suffered.
“I don't wish for people to live the life that I have, not even for a brief moment. I'm tired,” he said.
Judge Turner noted it was Bond's second sentence of home detention, his last coming in 2014.
On that occasion he admitted an indecent assault from the 1970s, while teaching at a different school.
The sex offences represented “an enormous breach of trust”, the judge said.
The major issue of contention at sentencing was whether Bond should be placed on the Child Sex Offender Register.
Mrs Stevens said her client had only ever offended in the teacher-pupil context.
Since retiring seven years ago, he had no contact with children, she said, and now busied himself with tramping and gardening in Central Otago.
However, the judge said the material before him clearly demonstrated a propensity to abuse children, a predilection for which Bond had not been treated.
Registration was ordered.
