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Offender Databases John Sisson

John Raymond Sisson

Alias

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Offences

Sexual violation (4 representative charges) of a 12 year old Kaiapoi girl over three years from late 1999,

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1966

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 12 years in December 2005, a 6 year minimum non-parole period was imposed

Background
Taranaki Daily News story 3rd December 2005
A little girl whose claim of being indecently touched was not believed went on to suffer three years of "regular, unrelenting, degrading and depraved" sex attacks by the same man. The girl, now aged 19, finally had her story believed by a Christchurch District Court jury, resulting yesterday in her attacker being sentenced to 12 years jail for a litany of rape, sodomy, humiliation and degradation. John Raymond Sisson, 39, a tomato grower, from Kaiapoi, continues to deny his guilt despite being found guilty on five representative charges of sexual violation. He was ordered to serve at least half the sentence before being considered for parole.

Judge Phil Moran said the girl had written a note to her teacher in April 1999 accusing Sisson of sexually molesting her, but despite an investigation by the police and Child, Youth and Family, no charges were laid. "That was partly because, if (the girl) is to be believed, nobody believed her complaint. Nevertheless, it was taken seriously," he said. "She was (then) in a hopeless position of not being believed in relation to her first complaint and feeling trapped, with nowhere to turn because nobody would believe her if she complained about what you did.

"Late in 1999 or early in 2000, when she was 13, the sexual violations commenced. You not only had intercourse with her, you raped her. These episodes of sexual abuse grew in their seriousness and depravity. They occurred frequently, regularly, and continued over a period of the next three years. "Your offending involved some degree of force and your sexual abuse of her was unrelenting. "You threatened her not to tell. You said you would hunt her down to the ends of the Earth. Emails you sent in later stages suggest continued threats."

Gerald Nation, defending, said Sisson's claim of innocence was backed by his wife, who firmly believed he has been convicted for something he had not done. Nation said Sisson's stance meant he could get no credit for remorse but asked for him not to be punished for his wife's attitude and not to receive a sentence so crushing as to remove the prospect of rehabilitation. The judge said he could think of no mitigating features of Sisson's offending. The aggravating features included the victim being a child, the degree of force used and the repetitive offending over a three-year span that involved "depravity, degradation and threats".

He gave Sisson credit for his lack of previous convictions, his role as a responsible and contributing member of the community and the esteem with which his work colleagues held him. "Sadly, it cannot be said that this offending was out of character because by your repetitive acts of abuse over a lengthy period showed it was very much in character," he said. The principal sentencing goals were to denounce and punish Sisson and send a deterrent message to others. Several in the public gallery reacted with shock as the judge announced the 12-year jail term.

The judge then turned his attention to whether Sisson should be compelled to serve more than one-third of the sentence before becoming eligible to apply for parole. "The need for general deterrence and to denounce your behaviour means a minimum period should be imposed that exceeds one-third," he said. "Given the enormity of your offending, your release from jail after serving one-third of the sentence would plainly constitute an insufficient response in the eyes of the community. "The incalculable harm you've caused to a vulnerable victim and the need to hold you accountable for offending you still won't acknowledge, the minimum term will be six years."

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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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