Prison for sexual offences

A man who showed no remorse for sexually offending against and assaulting an intellectually impaired woman pleaded to stay out of prison.

Darren Pelvin’s rehabilitation would be easier if he were serving home detention, his lawyer Jacinda Younger argued. But Judge Lance Rowe was not swayed and Pelvin, who has borderline intellectual functioning himself, was jailed for 29 months.

He previously admitted one charge each of exploitative sexual connection with a significantly impaired woman, sexually exploiting the woman and male assaults female.

In the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday, Rowe said Pelvin’s sentence sat above the threshold to be eligible for home detention, even after discounts for guilty pleas and other factors were added.

A court summary of the offending says Pelvin was in a relationship with a 36-year-old woman, who had a mental age of an 8 to 10 year old, for about four months. He would have sex with her every night, even if she didn’t want to.

She would tell Pelvin she’d had enough. Sometimes she even resorted to hitting him, but he would continue forcing her to have sex. In the early hours of June 14, 2015, the pair argued and Pelvin kicked the woman in the lower back several times.

Rowe said pre-sentence reports revealed Pelvin did not show remorse and denied much of his offending. Pelvin only showed up at one of four appointments with a psychologist and the judge said the report questioned his previous efforts at rehabilitation and counselling.

When he was a teenager Pelvin had revealed, when attending a rehab programme, other instances of him sexually offending.

‘‘You are a person from whom the community currently requires protection,’’ the judge told Pelvin.