Blair Hunt was found guilty by a jury on 16 charges of sexual offending against a young girl. Photo / 123rf file
Blair Hunt was found guilty by a jury on 16 charges of sexual offending against a young girl. Photo / 123rf file
WARNING: This article discusses sexual assault and self-harm and may be distressing.
A man found guilty of sexually assaulting a young girl for three years maintains he’s innocent and stood in the dock shaking his head as his victim described the ongoing effects of his abuse.
Blair Hunt, 55, appeared at the Christchurch District Court on Monday for sentencing with his arms crossed, often sighing as the judge outlined his offending.
Even after a jury found him guilty of 11 charges of sexual connection with a young person and five of indecent assault against a young person, he didn’t accept the verdict, and nor did his supporters who filled a large space in the public gallery.
Hunt’s victim and a couple of her supporters sat at the other end of the gallery, watching as Hunt was imprisoned for three years and two months.
The victim said Hunt destroyed her concept of love as he would often tell her he loved and she began to believe his actions were normal, in a statement read to the court by Crown Prosecutor Grace Collet.
Blair Hunt appeared at Christchurch District Court where he was sentenced to three years and two months for sexual offending against a young girl. Photo / George Heard
It wasn’t until the victim was in a health class when the teacher began discussing consent that things slowly started clicking into place.
She tried to tell someone what Hunt had been doing but every time she tried to speak out, she felt “frozen” and began to blame herself.
Her mental health started declining and she turned to self-harm to escape the thoughts and memories of Hunt that “haunted” her.
Now, she struggles with anxiety and going to public places by herself as she is always on high alert and wary of people around her despite knowing them.
She said her father was worried about her and she can no longer be affectionate with him or be intimate with others.
The offending spanned from 2016 to 2019 and involved Hunt touching the victim, who was under 16 years old, inappropriately on multiple occasions.
The victim said Hunt would assault her every chance he got and would often wait until the pair were alone.
Hunt also made the victim perform oral sex on him and would have sexual connection with her.
Hunt’s lawyer Kerryn Beaton KC said her client did not accept the jury’s verdict and asked the judge to take his health into consideration while imposing a sentence, as diabetes can be difficult to manage in prison.
She said this wasn’t a case where force or violence was involved, and Hunt had no previous convictions, which should also be taken into account when sentencing him.
Beaton KC described Hunt as a man of “good character” and the offending as a “significant fall from grace”.
However, Judge Kevin Phillips rejected the idea of Hunt’s good character, stating he lost this when the offending first began and continued over three years.
He described Hunt’s offending as “grooming a young child” and said he would often tell her he loved her and that his actions were the pair’s secret.
Judge Phillips said it was clear Hunt took away some of the most important years of his victim’s life and her mental health deteriorated, getting to the point that she had a “death wish”.
While the judge acknowledged Hunt’s supporters and the fact he maintains his innocence, he said there was a sense of entitlement and a good deal of premeditation involved in the offending.
Judge Phillips sentenced Hunt to three years and two months’ imprisonment.
