An Oamaru man who attempted to pervert the course of justice after committing two ''low level offences'' has been sentenced to home detention.
Bevan Ross Lockerbie (38), machine operator, of Oamaru, appeared before Judge Joanna Maze in the Oamaru District Court last week and pleaded guilty to wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice, breaching a protection order and intimidation.
The court heard that on June 26, a temporary protection order was served on Lockerbie, after an argument broke out and he shouted a threat at the protected person.
On July 28, he started sending text messages to the protected person, breaching the protection order.
The protected person contacted police, who started looking for Lockerbie as he continued to text her.
When located early the next day, Lockerbie told police he had been contacting the victim since the protection order was served because he believed he was able to do so.
On August 4, he used a laptop that had previously been used by the protected person and accessed her private hotmail address to send two emails to her lawyer, pretending to be the protected person.
The emails asked the lawyer for a discharge for Lockerbie or a discontinuation of the protection order.
In another email, he told the lawyer not to reply to the protected person's email address because ''she would be out of the area for a while''.
Defence counsel David Jackson said Lockerbie was in a very ''dark place'' at the time of offending.
The intimidation charge was very low level and the emails were sent at ''his most desperate point'', Mr Jackson said.
Lockerbie's actions were ''stupid rather than sinister'' and ''stupid rather than sophisticated''.
Lockerbie spent six weeks in custody on remand, which had given him time to calm down and reflect on what was important to him and that was ''clearly'' his children, Mr Jackson said.
A sentence of home detention, rather than jail, would benefit him and his children, Mr Jackson said, submitting a starting point of 18 months would be appropriate.
Crown counsel Matt Beattie said there was a need for an appropriate deterrent sentence, submitting a starting point of two and a-half to three years' jail.
Judge Maze said Lockerbie, at a restorative justice meeting, apologised to the victim and expressed genuine remorse.
His attempts to pervert the course of justice were ''doomed to fail'', she said.
The case was not at the ''most serious end of the scale'', she said, sentencing Lockerbie to six months' home detention for willfully attempting to pervert the course of justice and three months' home detention (the terms concurrent) for breaching a protection order.
On the intimidation charge, he was convicted and discharged.
