Home detention, not prison, for teen rapist

AUCKLAND: A teenager convicted of raping four girls under the age of 16 has been sentenced to nine months’ home detention — despite a judge acknowledging the consequence would ordinarily be a prison sentence of ‘‘many years’’.

Jayden Desmond Meyer, now 18, was charged after several complaints to police by young women in the Bay of Plenty alleging sexual violence across 2020 and 2021.

An investigation resulted in 10 charges — four of rape, four of sexual violation, and two of doing an indecent act. Of the five young victims, four were raped and one sexually violated.

According to district court documents obtained by Open Justice, all five victims were aged 15 at the time of the attacks. Meyer was 16.

Meyer, who has no criminal history, pleaded not guilty to all charges but was later found guilty.

A psychologist, who saw Meyer 30 times during the prosecution, found he had a medium risk of reoffending, and continues to minimise the effect of his crimes.

At his sentencing in the Tauranga District Court in July, one of the girls said she no longer had the confidence to go to school, had lost her sense of selfworth, and began selfharming.

Both Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett and Meyer’s lawyer, Rachael Adams, submitted that a sentence of home detention would be most appropriate, despite the Crown accepting imprisonment would be the ordinary sentence for this sort of offending; ‘‘and indeed one of many years’’.

Judge Christopher Harding agreed, saying a jail sentence was ‘‘undoubtedly correct’’.

The written sentencing decision does not detail how the judge reached the conclusion home detention would be the most appropriate sentence.

Meyer, who is now living north of Auckland, was sentenced to nine months’ home detention and a further 12 months of postrelease conditions, including a ban on associating with anyone under 16 and attending a sexual violence prevention programme.