Victims finally get justice from bad cop

Hawke's Bay was a witness to some of New Zealand's highest profile crimes and trials during 2014. Court reporter Sam Hurley looks at the year's top 10 cases.

Police officers are regarded as a pillar of society, those who we depend on in times of crisis. In 2014, Hawke's Bay was rocked by the "manipulative" Adam Dunnett who tarnished all those who wear the blue uniform in one of the biggest scandals to hit the New Zealand Police Force.

Dunnett, a former Flaxmere community constable, is currently behind bars after being jailed for 22 months for indecently assaulting five teenage girls at alcohol-fuelled surf club parties.

The disgraced officer was a surf life saving coach at the Ocean Beach Surf Club, one of the locations, along with the Taradale Fire Station where his shameful actions took place between May 2011 and New Year's Day 2013.

Dunnett, 38, initially faced 10 counts of indecent assault against the five teenage girls, all older than 16 at the time, but four of the charges were dismissed.

The stress, humiliation and anger for his victims was witnessed when the young women gave their emotional victim impact statements during Dunnett's sentencing in July.

It was a day "I have been waiting for", one of the teenagers told the stone-faced cop before he was jailed.

"If you have half a heart Adam, the words I am about to say will hopefully haunt you for the rest of your life, as your actions have haunted me for mine."

She questioned how she will ever be able to trust another policeman again after losing all hope, and feeling "alone, scared and vulnerable".

Another victim said Dunnett had "put [her] through hell just to find justice".

"I find it very hard to trust men in my life now," she said. "I should be able to trust the police but it is hard now. It will stay with me for the rest of my life."

Dunnett, who claimed the girls led him on, spent 258 minutes on the witness stand during the end of the trial in a last-gasp attempt to convince Judge Les Atkins QC he was innocent.

In many ways it proved fatal for the "arrogant" man, who was methodically picked apart during Crown prosecutor Gavin Thornton's cross-examination.

Often sobbing, Dunnett was revealed as a fraud, a man who was "tailoring" his evidence to "best suit [his] interests" and failed to "acknowledge responsibility in the offences".

One of the more heated moments of the trial came when Mr Thornton questioned Dunnett's recollection of the events and his moral judgment.

He said he would attend the parities to "have fun" but his "moral compass was broken due to intoxication".

Mr Thornton asked him if he "really believed a 16-year-old would want to be sexually intimate with a man old enough to be her father?"

"I'm sure somewhere in this world a 16-year-old is having a sexual relationship with a 37-year-old man," Dunnett replied.

"Would I do it again, no. But what's the mark, where is the mark?"

"I suggest you consult your moral compass," Mr Thornton quickly retorted.

To act as a deterrent to future offenders and police officers, Judge Atkins imposed a sentence of imprisonment rather than home detention.

He said he did not want to create the illusion that "police officers who offend have an advantage in sentencing".