Home detention for entertainer
Famed dancer and arts producer Mika X, also known as Mika Haka, has been sentenced to 11 months’ home detention for his part in an elaborate plot to convince a sexual-assault victim to drop his case.
He acted for a rich-list businessman who was recently convicted of assaulting three men in separate incidents in his Auckland home in 2000, 2008, and 2016.
X pleaded guilty to two charges of attempting to dissuade a witness before the trial.
Name suppression for X and two of his co-conspirators, former PR boss Jevan Goulter and Alison Edmonds, was lifted at his sentencing yesterday.
Goulter and Edmonds both gave evidence for the Crown in the businessman’s High Court case in return for immunity from prosecution.
They told the court Mika X convinced them to fly to the Gold Coast, posing as talent agents, to persuade the complainant to drop his case.
The trio flew to Brisbane in May 2017 and hired a rooftop suite at the Palazzo Versace hotel.
X left Goulter and Edmonds with a draft contract promising work in the United States, which was offered to the complainant, but he did not accept it.
All three flew back to Auckland together, and Goulter and Edmonds met the businessman’s manager several more times.
After he was sentenced yesterday, X told he had ‘‘f ..... up’’.
‘‘I would like to comment, however today for me is a day to feel for the victim(s) of this, and to protect them from trigger[s]. I need to wait for them,’’ X said in a message.
X has stepped down from the non-profit foundation he created.
In sentencing, Justice Geoffrey Venning made allowance for X’s guilty plea, his remorse and good work in the community.