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Offender Databases Mark Williams

Mark Williams

Alias

.

Offences

Two indecent assaults of a nine year old Tauranga girl between September and October 2007

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1964

Current Location

unknown

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to two years six months in May 2009

Background
From Bay of Plenty Times story 13th May 2009
What began as a seemingly innocent massage for a young girl by a Western Bay man culminated in her being sexually molested by him twice.

Mark Williams, 45, who was found guilty at trial on two counts of indecent assault on female aged under 12 but acquitted of a rape charge, appeared in Tauranga District Court for sentencing yesterday. He was jailed for 2 years six months.

The offences occurred at Williams' Tauranga home between September and October 2007 and involved Williams touching the-then 9-year-old victim's chest and groin during what began as a seemingly innocent massage. Crown prosecutor Catherine Harold said Williams' offending was a "gross breach of trust" committed on a vulnerable victim and deserved a prison sentence of three to three-and-a-half years.

There was a degree of premeditation in his actions and, given that there were two offences and because Williams continued to deny responsibility, there were no significant factors in mitigation to lessen his sentence, she said. Williams' lawyer, David Bates, said he could not accept the Crown's view that his client's offending would justify a sanction outside the range of home detention.

Mr Bates argued that at most, Williams could be jailed for 18 months. Home detention was appropriate for his client given the facts of the offending. "The risk of any inappropriate contact or conduct in relation to his new baby is really out of the question, it just wouldn't happen for whole host of reasons." Williams would have adequate supervision and guidance to minimise any risk or reoffending, he said.

Mr Bates was also highly critical of agencies, such as Child, Youth and Family Services, who were contacted by the pre-sentence report writer and had objected to Williams being considered for home detention. It was a matter for the court and the sentencing judge to determine, he said. Mr Bates said home detention was not automatically out of the question for some sexual offending cases, and his client was one of those and an appropriate candidate for such a sentence.

Judge Peter Rollo disagreed. He told Williams that he agreed with the Crown that his offending had been the "most gross breach of trust as one could envisage" and "a portrayal of the victim's trust to met his own base desires". The extent of harm to the victim and her mother was substantial.

Judge Rollo said a prison term of 2 years 6 months was appropriate on behalf of the victim and the community as a deterrent to him and others that sexual offending would not be tolerated on any level.

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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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