A convicted child rapist has been found guilty of indecently assaulting six girls in a Queenstown swimming pool in June 2017.
Benjamin Barrie Bradbury (43), of Tauranga, was charged in relation to offending at Alpine Aqualand on June 8, 10 and 14, 2017.
After about six and a-half hours of deliberation, an Invercargill District Court jury yesterday found him guilty on 10 of the 13 charges he denied.
Bradbury was discharged on three counts of indecently assaulting a girl then aged 10, on June 8, 2017, but was convicted of one charge he faced in relation to her.
Interim name suppression, in place since his first appearance in the Queenstown District Court, to protect his right to a fair trial, was lifted by Judge Mark Callaghan.
Bradbury has already been to prison twice for offending against young girls.
He was sentenced to 18 months behind bars in 2001 for indecently assaulting a 6-year-old and had been out for about eight months when he offended again.
According to Justice John Priestley's sentencing notes, dated July 20, 2004, on March 30 the year before, Bradbury indecently assaulted five females, including three aged between 12 and 16, in the Mairangi Bay area, of Auckland.
On April 6, 2003, he was in the same area when he abducted a 15-year-old girl at knife-point and raped her.
Justice Priestley sentenced him to 13 years' imprisonment on all charges, with a minimum non-parole period of seven years.
Bradbury served the full sentence and was released on April 5, 2016.
Fourteen months later he made his way from Tauranga to Queenstown and over three days indecently assaulted the girls while they played in the lazy river.
Over six days, all the children - aged between 5 and 10 at the time of the offending - gave independent evidence via audiovisual link to the jury, telling the same story, about a man in the lazy river, with a float board, going around and around and around with the current, and on June 10 he did that for more than nine hours, the court heard.
While the children's descriptions of what he looked like varied, their stories of being touched were almost identical.
A sweeping motion with his arm and hand - similar to a breast-stroke - under water, where no-one could see what he was doing, touching them while they were playing with friends, or not with an adult.
The children described his touch as a "tickling'', "swiping'', or "brushing'', to areas of their bodies between the knees and ribs.
Most thought the first time "the man'' touched them it was accidental.
And then he did it again. And, in some cases, again.
All were asked by defence counsel Hugo Young if maybe they were wrong and what they thought was intentional was actually just an "accident''.
One conceded it was under cross-examination.
Another replied "kind of''.
The others stood their ground.
Bradbury was yesterday convicted on the 10 charges by Judge Callaghan and given a strike under the three-strikes law.
At the time of his sentencing in 2004, Justice Priestley told him if he committed a "serious sexual offence again'' a preventive detention sentence was "almost inevitable'' which, in some circumstances, "could mean you being locked up for the rest of your life''.
A sentencing date is yet to be set.
Timeline
February 2001: Benjamin Barrie Bradbury sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment on two charges of indecently assaulting a 6-year-old girl.
March 30, 2003: Bradbury out of prison about eight months when he indecently assaults three females over the age of 16 and two females aged between 12 and 16, at a beach in the Mairangi Bay area of Auckland. Also charged with possession of a knife.
April 6, 2003: Bradbury abducts 15-year-old girl at knife-point and rapes her, in the same area.
February 10, 2004: Auckland District Court jury finds Bradbury guilty of abduction and rape charges.
July 20, 2004: Bradbury sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for his March-April 2003 offending.
April 5, 2016: Bradbury is released from prison.
June 8-14, 2017: Bradbury indecently assaults six girls, aged between 5 and 10, at Alpine Aqualand in Queenstown.
February 25, 2019: Bradbury stands trial in the Invercargill District Court having denied all 13 charges he faces.
March 6, 2019: The jury announces its unanimous verdict, finding Bradbury guilty of 10 indecent assault charges.
