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Offender Databases Damon Exley

Damon John Exley

Alias

John Damon Exley

Offences

Attempted armed rape of a Wellington woman in July 2005 while on parole for previous similar offending
239 previous convictions including multiple kidnapping/abduction, indecent assault, theft, fraud, etc etc

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1969

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to preventive detention with a eight year non-parole period in June 2006
Unsuccessfully appealed this sentence in September 2007

Background
Supreme Court judgment here (PDF)
From Dominion Post story June 2006
A man with 239 convictions, who planned to rape a real estate agent at knifepoint as she showed him a Plimmerton house, has been sentenced to preventive detention for at least eight years. Sentencing Damon John Exley, 37, in the High Court at Wellington yesterday, Justice Warren Gendall said the community needed protection from him. He was also jailed in 2000 for kidnapping and assaulting a real estate agent. Exley had 239 previous convictions, including kidnap, indecent assault, theft, fraud and escaping from custody. "You are a hardened criminal," Justice Gendall said, outlining a crime spree in June and July last year that started when he fraudulently took $14,000 of property from a Christchurch hardware store.

Exley then stole a Range Rover from a car dealer, property from a Kaikoura motel, ran up bills in a Nelson motel, escaped from police, stole a Harley Davidson motorcycle from another Christchurch dealer and took a $230,000 launch from Marlborough Sounds. After sailing to Mana Marina, he approached a real estate firm and lured a female agent to show him some properties, planning to attack her. While being shown one property, he produced a knife and ordered her to remove her clothes. "You intended to rob and rape her," Justice Gendall said. "She was kept captive by you but thankfully she was able to escape through a window at some risk to herself." The woman was left in a very distressed state. To escape capture by police, Exley climbed into another property, stole clothing and a carving knife and was found hiding under a bed by the female property owner.

Realising police were on his trail, Exley phoned the police the next day and handed himself in. Outlining Exley's criminal history, Justice Gendall said he had been jailed in 1998 on 48 charges and later freed on parole. In 2000, he kidnapped and assaulted another real estate agent during a crime spree. Exley was sentenced to 4 years 6 months' jail that time and freed early last year - five months before he began offending again. Justice Gendall said allowance had to be given for his guilty pleas, but the use of a knife, assault with intention to rape, premeditation, the serious emotional harm caused to his victims, the sheer volume of offending and the fact he committed crimes while on parole were all aggravating factors.

His sexual crimes involved "chilling pre-determination". "There should be no opportunity for you to endanger people in a similar way in the future." Exley was sentenced to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of eight years. The purpose of preventive detention was to protect the community from further serious offences. Exley would not be freed till the Parole Board was sure he was no longer a risk to the community. The judge said Exley would not be let out when the minimum non-parole period expired but when or if the board determined he could be freed into the community. He would remain on parole for the rest of his life. Justice Gendall also sentenced Exley to between one and four years' jail, to be served concurrently, on 15 other offences including, theft, burglary and of unlawfully taking vehicles.

From the Nelson Mail 16th September 2000
A Blenheim man who threatened to shoot his kidnap victim and told her he intended to "have his way" with her has been jailed for 6 years 6 months. John Damon Exley - a 31-year-old who has spent 15 of the past 16 years in prison - was sentenced in the High Court at Blenheim yesterday on charges including kidnapping, indecent assault, car conversion, burglary, theft and possessing a firearm while committing an offence. Judge John Walker said that on June 9, Exley met a real estate agent to view houses. After looking at one property, the agent decided to drive back to her office to get keys to other houses.

Exley produced an imitation Glock pistol, which the woman believed to be real. He pointed the pistol at her and forced her to drive out of Blenheim.When she refused to turn into a side road, pulling into a gravel layby instead, Exley told her, "I am going to have my way with you," Judge Walker said. The woman managed to free herself from Exley's grasp and escape. In his summary, Judge Walker described Exley's history of offending, including 11 burglary convictions, 45 car conversions and more than 100 dishonesty offences. Judge Walker described the victim as "brave and courageous". He said the public needed protection from Exley. "This was a terrifying ordeal for the victim. Your words, `I am going to have my way with you', could only have added to her terror," he told Exley

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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