Christchurch night stalker: Police considering appeal against community detention for man who 'stalked' ex wife for two years

Senior Journalist - crime and justice·NZ Herald·

16 Feb, 2021 07:42 PM5 mins to read

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Police are considering an appeal against a sentence of community detention handed down to a Christchurch man who stalked his estranged wife for two years - breaching a protection order six times and "creeping" onto her property at night to install GPS trackers on her car and following her.

And the full details of the lengths Jason Knowles' went to keep tabs on his ex after she left him can now be revealed after court documents were provided to the Herald outlining his persistent and prolonged offending.

Knowles, 49, was sentenced to three months' community detention with a curfew from 10pm when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court on February 3.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to six charges relating to breaching a protection order granted to his former wife who says she left him because of his "abuse" and treatment of their children.

The maximum penalty for his repeated offending was three years in prison.

However, Judge Quentin Hix handed down three months of community detention - meaning Knowles is confined to his home during the curfew hours.

Police are now "currently considering its options in relation to any possible appeals".

The Herald has been granted permission to publish the full details of the offending -which began in October 2019 shortly after his estranged wife was granted a temporary protection order against him.

In January 2020 Knowles' ex - who has permanent name suppression - was visiting a friend and he was spotted "loitering around" the address about 15m from the entrance "watching" the property.

He was charged with breaching the protection order - but that did not stop him.

In February 2020 a final protection order was issued.

In June Knowles went to an address he owns with his ex - next to the house where she lived at the time with their children.

Court documents reveal he stood at a fence that divides the two properties and for almost two hours, "stared at the victim's address" while she was home.

Her security cameras captured him that night - and on a number of other occasions, leaving her feeling scared and intimidated in her own home.

In August 2020 Knowles was seen a number of times parked in a car near where the victim was.

One time she was on a class trip with one of her children, another time he was parked near the former family home.

Both times he was in a car the victim did not recognise.

In August he also placed a GPS tracking device on his ex-wife's car.

The tracker enabled him to send a text code and receive the GPS location of her car whenever he wanted.

Across 27 days he sent 73 text messages to obtain information about where her car was.

On August 31 police, alerted by the woman, searched the car and discovered the tracker and removed it.

But the next day Knowles "crawled down the driveway" of her property at 12.15am and placed a second tracker on the car.

The Herald understands Knowles' actions were caught on security camera.

Police found the second tracking device hours later - in the same spot as the first.

At sentencing Knowles' ex wife described living with two years of "unrelenting" intimidation and threats and feared Knowles, who felt "completely entitled" to do whatever he wanted regardless of any court order.

"I feel he will never leave me alone … he thinks of me as his possession and that he should have complete control over me," she said.

"I feel anxious, stressed, paranoid ... His behaviour has been frightening … stalking and following us absolutely everywhere … I am fearful of what comes next… I fear for my safety."

Prosecutor Kerri Bell said in court that Knowles "creeping" offending was "quite disturbing".

"It demonstrates a high level of psychological abuse, a high level of control … The lack of violence and contact here shouldn't minimise the offending," she told the court.

"This is a very clear case of very severe psychological abuse."

Defence lawyer Simon Shamy disagreed, saying the fact that there was "no violence, no threat of violence, no communication" meant the offending was "lower-level offending".

Judge Hix agreed the combination of repeated offending were "serious psychological abuse".

But he was convinced by a pre-sentence report from a psychologist that Knowles had changed his approach and was improving his attitude towards his family.

He felt the most appropriate sentence for Knowles was three months 'community detention with a curfew from 10pm to 5am.