Man jailed for grooming girl

A man who was warned by police about his contact with a teenage girl has been sent to prison for sexual grooming.

Simon Neil Johnson, 23, was sentenced on charges of meeting a young person following sexual grooming, and assault on a person in a family relationship, in the Nelson District Court on Tuesday.

Judge David Ruth said Johnson met the 14-year-old victim through Facebook when he was 22. They messaged each other through social media, then via texts and phone and video calls. ‘‘Those calls may have started reasonably innocuously, but they escalated to include sexual references.’’

Johnson sent the victim photos of himself without clothes on, and she responded with photos and videos that he requested. The contact lasted about 12 months before Johnson said he would travel to the victim’s home to meet her.

Last October, he was warned by a police officer in Waimate that if he continued his contact with the girl, he was likely to face criminal charges. ‘‘You didn’t heed his warning,’’ Judge Ruth said.

Johnson travelled to the victim’s home town in Tasman district. He arranged to pick her up from school, and took her back to his motel.

The motel manager had concerns about the victim’s age, and called police.

When police arrived, they found Johnson and the victim in a state of undress. There was a large amount of alcohol in the kitchen.

In explanation, Johnson said the victim had been upset and he was comforting her. He also said he had taken off his shirt because he had spilled something on it.

When arrested, Johnson was found to have contraceptive pills under another female’s name.

Judge Ruth said the law was in place to protect young people, sometimes from their own stupidity. He said Johnson’s offending was persistent and premeditated, and a classic example of grooming a person for sexual reasons.

Crown prosecutor Sefton Revell said Johnson had failed to comply with his bail conditions, including contacting the victim and using social media, which resulted in him being remanded in custody before sentencing.

Regarding the charge of assaulting a person in a family relationship, Johnson had been driving in Timaru with another person in the passenger seat when the pair had an argument and Johnson hit the woman multiple times.

Judge Ruth sentenced Johnson to 15 months in prison on the grooming charge, and two months on the assault charge, to be served concurrently. Johnson was automatically added to the child sex offender register.