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Offender Databases Francis Cross

Francis Thomas Cross

Alias

Carly Cross

Offences

Sexual indecency with a 14 year old girl over four months in 2006

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1961

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 21 months in July 2007
Released May 2008

Background
NZPA Story Friday, 13 July 2007
A cross-court outburst marked the end of a sentencing session for a 46-year-old man jailed for his sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. There had been tears on both sides of Christchurch District Courtroom where the man's supporters, and the girl and her family were sitting during the sentencing by Judge David Holderness.

"Nice one. Got what you wanted?" a woman shouted at the family after the man had been taken away to begin a 21-month jail term. "She's only a child for goodness sake," the family responded as the girl cried.

Francis Thomas Cross, a government office worker, had pleaded guilty to the charge of having unlawful sexual connection with the girl aged under 16. His name had been suppressed until today. Crown prosecutor Catherine Butchard conferred with the girl's family in court before the judge decided to lift the order. "The community has a right to know who commits offences of this sort and it is often observed that publication of the offender's name is part and parcel of the overall penalty," said Judge Holderness.

Defence counsel Brendan Callaghan had argued for a community-based sentence and continuation of the name suppression. The offending had not been predatory and Cross had written letters of apology to the victim and her family. He had pleaded guilty early, showed genuine remorse, and was a first offender. Miss Butchard told the court: "It is clear that consent is of no moment in these cases. This legislation is put in place by Parliament to protect young girls against this sort of thing."

The pair were members of a club which had its name suppressed to prevent identification of the victim. The man knew the girl's parents.They exchanged texts, and the relationship moved on to touching, full sexual intercourse on about 10 occasions, and oral sex. The girl turned 15 during the four-month relationship. "There was plenty of opportunity for the offender to recognise the harm he was causing and to turn back," said Miss Butchard.

Judge Holderness said the victim impact statements showed there had been a seriously adverse effect on the girl and her family. Her mother said the stress had been unimaginable. "The court can only speculate about future problems, but experience has shown that problems arising from this sort of offending continue for some years in the case of many young victims." Because Cross was a first offender, the judge granted leave for him to apply for home detention and ordered that he undertake assessment for a rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.

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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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