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Offender Databases Jason Stephens

Jason Phillip Stephens

Alias

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Offences

Sexual assault of a 6 year old girl in Edgecumbe in 1999
Indecent assault of a 3 year old Whakatane girl on November, 2006
Unlawful sexual intercourse with a mentally impaired Whakatane woman in 2006
64 previous convictions for a raft of offences including burglaries, assaults and miscellaneous drug charges

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1979

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 4 years 6 months in August 2008

Background
A man with more than 60 convictions for assault, burglary, drugs and dishonesty, turned to sexual offending two years ago. Jason Phillip Stephens has been jailed for four and a half years for sexually assaulting two young girls and having "exploitative" sex with a mentally impaired woman. The 29-year-old unemployed Whakatane man appeared for sentencing in the Rotorua District Court yesterday. The court heard he had 64 previous convictions for a raft of offences including burglaries, assaults and those relating to drugs and dishonesty.

Judge Chris McGuire, who sentenced Stephens, said it was not unusual for those convicted for assaults and burglaries to graduate to serious sexual offending. "Some of the research indicates that once a person like you gets relaxed about the idea of assaults and burglaries and drugs, it's not much of a change to become involved in serious sexual offending" the judge said.

Earlier this year, Stephens was found guilty of assaulting a 6-year-old girl in Edgecumbe in 1999. He pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a 3-year-old girl on November 27, 2006, and to two charges of exploitative sexual connection which involved having sexual intercourse with a mentally impaired woman in 2006.

Judge McGuire said the Edgecumbe incident involved Stephens going into the victim's bedroom and touching her private parts. He put a pillow over her face to stop her calling out. At the time, there was insufficient evidence to charge Stephens but last year the victim gave police details of what Stephens had done.The court heard she told police she was a young, helpless, innocent girl and Stephens had taken something from her which she could never get back. The incident affected every area of her life. She had trouble sleeping and feared the dark. She was also upset Stephens had never apologised or acknowledged what he had done. He still denied the incident happened.

In November last year, Stephens indecently touched a 3-year-old girl. She changed drastically as a result of the sexual assault and was no longer a happy child. Her parents were upset they were not able to protect her from Stephens, Judge McGuire said. Earlier last year, Stephens had sexual intercourse with a woman who had the mental capacity of a 10-year-old after suffering a head injury as a child. The court was told the woman consented to the intercourse but said what had been done made her feel sick. Judge McGuire said Stephens had suffered from "attention deficit syndrome" as a teenager and had since been diagnosed with depression.

Stephens has three children, and while on remand in custody pending the outcome of the court case, his partner had ended her relationship with him. He said he felt like he had lost everything. Judge McGuire said reports showed there was a high risk of Stephens re-offending.

Rotorua Crown solicitor Fletcher Pilditch said if Stephens offended in a similar way again the Crown would apply for a sentence of preventive detention. Stephens' lawyer Bill Lawson said Stephens just wanted to get on with his life and avoid any more criminal behaviour. Stephens was prepared to take part in a rehabilitation course for sexual offenders while in prison.

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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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