Mixed verdicts for ‘sugar daddy’
A ‘‘sugar daddy’’ truck driver has been found not guilty of rape but guilty of obtaining sex services by deception and prostitution with women under 18.
A jury of eight men and three women considered the case for over five hours before returning their verdicts late yesterday in the Wellington District Court.
After the jury’s verdicts, name suppression ended for 52-year-old
Dion Lance McKenzie.
He was acquitted of raping a 17-year-old Lower Hutt woman, who said she consented to sex in August 2018 on condition that McKenzie wear a condom.
However, when he ended, she was shocked to see he wasn’t wearing a condom.
In his evidence, McKenzie said he did in fact wear one but took it off as soon as he had finished.
But he was found guilty of receiving commercial sexual services with the woman who was promised $1500 after McKenzie contacted her on Instagram after seeing her profile on the dating app Tinder.
He was also found guilty of two other charges of receiving commercial sex services from a person under 18, and one of contracting with a person under 18 for commercial sex services.
The friends who met McKenzie in his truck on the Petone foreshore in June 2018 were aged 15 and 16. One changed her mind at the last minute and did not have sex with him, but the other two did.
He was found guilty of obtaining a privilege, service or benefit by deception for promising $1500 to two gay women in Christchurch in January 2018.
He watched them making out and then had sex with one of them. They were aged 20 and 21.
McKenzie was given bail until sentencing in August.
He told The Dominion Post after the verdicts that he never meant to hurt anyone.
Despite promises of big money – up to $1600 – nothing was paid.
McKenzie said he began contacting other women when he was away from his home north of Wellington, working for six days a week, and once his relationship with his wife had deteriorated.