Ambulance worker Christopher King who preyed on vulnerable women a 'consummate liar'

MANIPULATOR: Christopher King was sentenced to 14 and a half years in jail. PHOTO/FILE

In a shocking case displaying a total breach of trust, it was revealed how "consummate liar" Christopher King preyed on the sick and injured, and hid behind the protective cloak which was his St John uniform.

King, 49, was sentenced this month by Judge Geoff Rea on a total of 13 sex charges to 14-and-a-half years in jail with a non-parole period of eight years.

The man who claimed to be the "unluckiest" ambulance officer in the country failed to pull the wool over the eyes of 12 jurors as he put his victims through the "wringer", labelling them liars, unreliable and mentally unstable during a lengthy trial.

King was found guilty in November of eight charges relating to the indecent and sexual assault of four women, aged 15 to 57, in the back of his ambulance between January 2010 and June 2013 in Central Hawke's Bay.

Each of the women were in need of medical aid. They included a teenager who had been beaten by her boyfriend; a woman suffering depression and threatening to harm herself; a young woman with a terminal illness; and a woman who suffered from temporary paralysis.

Judge Rea said it was "extraordinary" to read a probation report that King maintained one of his victims was consenting to his sexual advances and was unimpressed by the character references for the ambulance officer.

"The jury did not get it wrong. I note none of the character references are dated after you pleaded guilty."

Earlier this month, King also pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual assault on two girls aged 16 and younger in 2002 to 2006, while working as a mechanic in Napier.

The King case drew widespread media attention and King's sinister past was one of the worst of its kind to come before New Zealand's courts, Judge Rea said.

Before King's sentencing, Hawke's Bay Today spoke exclusively to a woman who shared a past life with the man who has caused "huge heartache and emotional pain" to many families.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, recalled King's earlier life, when he attended Cambridge High School in Waikato, before he began working as a diesel mechanic during the 1980s in Cambridge and Hamilton, and later moved to Rotorua and Waipukurau.

"He is a consummate liar. He can look at you, he can look at you right in the eyes, and lie right to your face."

She also shed light on how the defiant medic projected a confidence to people which has cumulated in his four marriages. His second wife has since died.

King married his current wife two years ago, while working as a member of St John, after he began his career as a volunteer in 2007.

The woman said King's family "hotly denied" the crimes following the police investigation and his resignation from St John in August last year and may continue to "believe he is innocent".

The mother of the terminally ill victim, who passed away in February this year, said King's crimes had rocked the small community of Central Hawke's Bay.

She said a "sense of dread" washed over the family every time her daughter required an ambulance.

"We dreaded seeing you or bumping into you in our small community."

Throughout the scandal an "arrogant" King staunchly denied all the crimes he committed in the back of his ambulance, describing them during his police interview late last year as "bullshit".

St John now carries out yearly police checks on its staff as part of a new policy since King's offending.