Dealer gets foot fetish fix off teens

A drug dealer with a foot fetish was swapping cannabis for pictures of teenagers’ naked feet, while also shifting large amounts of meth across the country.

James Panapa Hapakuku, a drug ‘‘courier’’ for an Auckland meth kingpin, started approaching young girls across the top of the south in 2015, asking them to pose for a pretend art project.

Hapakuku, 34, contacted two Marlborough girls several times, trading $50 worth of cannabis, or sometimes cash or energy drinks, in exchange for photographs.

Eventually the girls started contacting him, asking for more photographs to get more cannabis and cash, the summary said.

Hapakuku was sentenced at the Blenheim District Court on Wednesday for supplying meth and supplying cannabis to under 18-yearolds.

An earlier hearing determined taking pictures of the girls’ feet was not illegal, despite Hapakuku admitting he was sexually motivated by his foot fetish.

He was one of seven people caught during Operation Book. Hapakuku was a ‘‘courier’’, reporting to a kingpin further up the chain, police said.

He sold 350 grams of meth over six months in Marlborough, worth more than $300,000, between September 2015 and February last year.

One mother said in a victim impact statement her daughter had become addicted to cannabis. It affected her mental health and she had stopped going to school.

‘‘I’m worried about what the longterm damage to her brain will be.’’

Her family planned to move away from Marlborough to give the teenager a fresh start, assuming they could afford the cost of moving and find work, the woman said.

Probation officers said Hapakuku expressed remorse, quoting him as saying ‘‘I was lost in meth. It changes your whole moral code’’.

Judge Tuohy convicted Hapakuku and sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment for the meth charges, and a further 13 months’ imprisonment for the cannabis charges.

"I was lost in meth. It changes your whole moral code." James Panapa Hapakuku