Had 24-year-old Jordan Hugh McKenzie been sentenced on both matters on the same day he would have been locked up (because the sentence would have exceeded the two-year threshold), Judge David Robinson told the Dunedin District Court last week.
In August, after pleading guilty to wounding with intent to injure and wilful damage, the defendant was sentenced to 10 months’ home detention and 100 hours’ community work.
When he turned up at court last week on a charge of indecent communication with an under-16-old, the judge cancelled the original sentence and imposed eight months’ home detention and 150 hours’ community work.
Judge Robinson said he opted against locking up McKenzie "by the narrowest of margins" and because he would be unlikely to receive specialist sex-offender treatment behind bars.
In March last year, the defendant began chatting with his 13-year-old victim on social-media app Snapchat.
He claimed he was 19, while she said she was 15.
The conversation centred on the mundane initially, court documents said, before McKenzie sent the girl a photo of his genitalia.
The victim did not respond and while they shared more tasteful photos, the man repeatedly pressured her for nudes.
At the peak of McKenzie’s messaging onslaught, he bombarded her with explicit comments over several hours while she was at school.
He told the girl he would be in her home town the following month but before any meeting could take place, the online conversations were viewed by the victim’s mother.
Three months earlier, while living in Christchurch, McKenzie had been feuding with a woman and answered the door to her while carrying a 32cm knife. The court heard he stabbed the victim in the arm, causing a small wound.
He claimed he had been using the implement to make a sandwich and the woman had lunged at him.
"To be blunt, I just don’t believe that. This was a stabbing," Judge Robinson said.
A puncture to a blood vessel in the arm could lead to someone bleeding to death in eight minutes, he said.
Last week, the court heard the victim of the indecent messaging had had trouble sleeping and was now constantly paranoid she was being followed.
"I don’t think I’m overstating it to say every aspect of her life has been affected," the judge said.
While serving his original home-detention term, McKenzie had been warned by Probation for repeatedly using cannabis.
His counsel, Brendan Stephenson, said his client was committed to abstinence from the drug and was wait-listed for sex-offender counselling.
"Mr McKenzie is now at a crossroads," he said.
"He needs to knuckle down."
If he did not, he would be recalled to court and sentenced to imprisonment, Judge Robinson said.
"I’ve given you enough chances," he said.
