Preventive detention for Queenstown pool assaults

Alpine Aqualand at Queenstown Events Centre. Photo: ODT files
Alpine Aqualand at Queenstown Events Centre. Photo: ODT files
A man who indecently assaulted children in a Queenstown swimming pool has today been sentenced to preventive detention, "to protect the community".

Benjamin Barrie Bradbury appeared in the High Court at Invercargill today after being found guilty in March of 10 of 13 charges he faced, against six girls aged between 5 and 10 at the time of his offending.

At that occasion, Judge Mark Callaghan declined to sentence him in the district court because the Crown wanted to seek a preventive detention sentence.

The offending took place on June 10 and 14, 2017 in the lazy river at Alpine Aqualand, at the Queenstown Events Centre.

The jury found Bradbury not guilty of three charges relating to one of the six victims, which related to offending alleged to have occurred on June 8, 2017.

Bradbury had been out of prison just over a year at the time of the offending in 2017 in Queenstown, having spent 13 years in prison for abducting a 15-year-old at knife point and raping her in Auckland in 2003 and indecently assaulting other minors around the same time.

Bradbury was today sentenced by Justice Gerald Nation to preventive detention with a minimum of five years of non parole period.

Justice Nation said the preventive detention was necessary "to protect the community as he has a serious history of sexual offence and a high risk to reoffending".

Timeline

February 2001: Benjamin Barrie Bradbury sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment on two charges of indecently assaulting a 6-year-old girl.

March 30, 2003: Bradbury out of prison about eight months when he indecently assaults three females over the age of 16 and two females aged between 12 and 16, at a beach in the Mairangi Bay area of Auckland. Also charged with possession of a knife.

April 6, 2003: Bradbury abducts 15-year-old girl at knife-point and rapes her, in the same area.

February 10, 2004: Auckland District Court jury finds Bradbury guilty of abduction and rape charges.

July 20, 2004: Bradbury sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for his March-April 2003 offending.

April 5, 2016: Bradbury is released from prison.

June 8-14, 2017: Bradbury indecently assaults six girls, aged between 5 and 10, at Alpine Aqualand in Queenstown.

February 25, 2019: Bradbury stands trial in the Invercargill District Court having denied all 13 charges he faces.

March 6, 2019: The jury announces its unanimous verdict, finding Bradbury guilty of 10 indecent assault charges.

 

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