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A teenager with ambitions to join the military has avoided convictions for sexually assaulting three women.
Te Rangiaho Ian Williams, 19, says he was looking for a gang in Manawatū when he stalked three women and inappropriately touched them in May.
He was granted a discharge without conviction in Palmerston North District Court on Wednesday. Although she is guilty of three counts of indecent assault, her criminal record remains intact.
Judge Stephanie Edwards said the consequences of pursuing a conviction would be out of proportion to the seriousness or severity of Williams’ crime.
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The sexual convictions carried a stigma that would prevent him from pursuing his dreams of becoming a gunner in the military and traveling abroad to play rugby, he said.
The assaults on three women exercising in Palmerston North took place on May 1, 8 and 11.
The first, at 12:40 pm, was about a woman walking along the Mangaone creek footbridge.
Williams ran after her. Despite wearing headphones, she heard it and turned around.
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Te Rangiaho Williams was granted an exoneration without conviction in Palmerston North District Court on Wednesday.
Williams walked away and the woman thought he had mistaken her for someone else.
But again he ran after her, grabbing her inappropriately before fleeing.
The second assault occurred in the same manner, Williams running after a woman wearing hearing aids, but on Vernon Ave at 11:40 a.m. He grabbed the victim inappropriately over his clothes.
The third was also on the Mangaone Stream catwalk, at 4.30 p.m.
The victim had stopped to speak on the cell phone when Williams hugged her tightly and rubbed against her. She then fled to Rosedale Cres.
One of the victims spoke to Williams for the first time in court.
She wore her favorite clothes that day, but wearing them now sparked heartbreaking flashbacks.
“I still struggle to get out for a walk … I constantly feel like someone is following me,” she told Williams.
“It’s not easy to just forget and move on when something like this happens to you.”
Another victim provided a statement via an audio link because she did not want to confront Williams.
She traveled the world, bought a home and spent years studying, yet the attack made her feel worthless.
“I play the moment over and over in my head all the time. I wasn’t that ready … You have no idea what you did, ”she said.
“I don’t want to live in a society where I can’t walk around the city.”
In the moments after the attack, he warned a mother and son walking in Williams’ direction about what had just happened.
“His son asked me why I was crying … All I can ask is that you don’t do this to other people who might not be as strong as me.”
Defense attorney Timothy Hesketh said his client was ashamed of his actions and understood the effect his offense had on the three women.
“The remorse is real. It is genuine. He is more than sorry for his actions. “
Unusually, the crime was not sexually motivated, the judge said.
Williams worked in a freezer factory near Bulls at the time.
He worked with gang members, some of whom recruited Williams and pressured him to carry out an attack on women as part of an initiation process.
He was instructed to do something more serious, but could not do it.
“You said they were watching you and you were afraid of the consequences for yourself and that if you didn’t comply.
“I do not rule out the pressure that gang members exert on young people in the community.”
The judge said Williams did not need to join a gang because he already had a stable and supportive whānau.
A pre-sentencing report indicated that Williams was born in Christchurch and moved to Palmerston North several years ago.
He has played representative rugby since the age of 11 and is part of New Zealand Rugby’s Maori development program. He has the ambition to play abroad.
Williams attended UCOL when he left school before joining the meat factory.
She has been in a relationship for seven months and her partner was interviewed by report writers.
There was no evidence that he used manipulative strategies and he had no history of sexual assault.
These factors meant that Williams did not present any risk to the community, the judge said.
Williams was asked to think about the women whose lives he had changed.
“I urge you never to forget what you heard from your victims,” the judge told him.
“It is important that you understand and think about the effect that your actions had on them to ensure that you never do something like this again.”
