No parole for serial groper

A serial groper jailed for assaulting women on the streets of Hawke’s Bay and Rotorua has had parole declined at his first hearing before the Parole Board.

Jason Trembath was jailed for five years and four months in June last year after he admitted indecently assaulting 11 women, and one charge of making an intimate visual recording and distributing the material by posting on a Facebook page. A jury found him not guilty of rape.

Trembath, now 31, was the man responsible for a string of assaults on women in Napier, Havelock North, Taradale and Rotorua in late 2017.

He appeared before the board on June 12.

He was not expecting to be paroled. His lawyer asked the board to instruct prison authorities to provide him with psychological counselling.

The board said it did not have the power to make such an instruction but could request a full psychological assessment and recommend that, depending on the outcome, that Trembath receive one-on-one psychological counselling.