A Korean teenager faces eight years jail and then deportation after his sentencing on kidnapping and sex charges in Christchurch District Court today.
Ki Hyun Youn, 19, was sentenced on 13 charges, which crown prosecutor Kathy Basire described as very serious offending over a short period.
Defence counsel Tony Greig told the court that Youn did not have permanent residence, and was on an extended visitor visa.
He said that prison would be very hard for him because he would be the only Korean there.
Judge Gary MacAskill said that he could not avoid dealing with the facts in detail.
He told of Youn boarding in Wellington last September and stealing a handbag from one room and raiding the rest of the house.
He used the keys from the handbag to take a car and started driving to Auckland. He used a bank card to get money from an automatic teller machine but got stopped on the way to Auckland by the police. He told them he was going to Auckland so he could leave the country.
In 2008, he stole $2050 from where he was employed and used the manager's eftpos card six times to get another $1800. He stole property from a flatmate where he was living and in February 2008 moved to Christchurch.
He started gambling at the casino, and used a friend's credit card to get more money.
On one occasion he picked up a woman he knew and drove her to New Brighton. He made her get out of the car but kept her handbag, and withdrew $800 from her bank account.
In April he went to the home of a woman he knew and asked her if he could use the toilet. She let him do that and then he left but came back to say he had left his cellphone behind. He then grabbed the woman around the neck and took a knife from his pocket.
He forced her to transfer $800 to his account by internet banking and took her credit card and made her tell him her pin number.
After making her undress at knife-point, he used her cellphone to take photographs of her, making her part her legs for one picture.
He sexually violated her and demanded oral sex, pushing her head down when she refused. He forced her to kiss him.
When he left he took her cellphone and the landline handset with him and used her card to get $1300, plus food and petrol.
Most of the items he had stolen were found at his address.
Judge MacAskill said that this was an abuse of trust as most of his victims were friends and workmates. He had affected his victims both financially and emotionally and used a weapon for one of his attacks.
His pre-sentence report told of his abuse of alcohol and his dishonesty because of gambling, and that he was at a high risk of re-offending. He had pleaded guilty to all 13 charges.
He sentenced Youn to eight years in prison with a non-parole period of four years. He will have to pay reparation of $12,273 which Mr Greig said his mother, who had arrived from overseas for the sentencing, would pay.
