Northland rapist Jessie Heke-Gray has prison sentence reduced

Jessie Heke-Gray's traumatic childhood has been linked to his violent sexual behaviour towards women. Photo / NZME

This article deals with sexual offending and may be distressing for some readers.

A rapist who subjected a woman to 10 days of terror, placed a pistol in her mouth and made her get his name tattooed above her eyebrow has had his open-ended prison sentence quashed.

Instead, Jessie Heke-Gray, who was jailed four years ago to preventive detention, a prison term with no fixed expiry date, has been re-sentenced to 15 years and one month in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of seven years and six months.

The Court of Appeal reduced his sentence after it agreed to hear new evidence from a neuropsychologist that said Heke-Gray suffered from foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

One of the strands of his appeal was that the FASD, a condition caused by being exposed to alcohol in a mother’s womb, may have contributed to his belief that the woman, whom he met on Facebook, was consenting during her prolonged ordeal.

Further new evidence was admitted from a forensic psychiatrist that Heke-Gray also met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), linked to his traumatic upbringing and physical, emotional and sexual abuse as a child in state care.

Justice Christian Whata called Jessie Heke-Gray's actions "10 days of horrible offending". Photo / Michael Craig

The Court of Appeal said the two specialists considered that Heke-Gray was willing to engage in individualised rehabilitation tailored to his needs, “and he would be very likely to benefit from this.

“The lengthy finite sentence of 15 years and one month’s imprisonment ... ought to be sufficient to enable Mr Heke-Gray to be given the counselling and treatment he needs to reduce his risk of committing another qualifying sexual or violent offence upon release,” the Appeal Court justices said.

“If his risk remains sufficiently elevated at that time, an extended supervision order could be made subject to suitable conditions to manage this risk.”

Heke-Gray, 38, was found guilty in 2018 on five charges of unlawful sexual connection with a female, three charges of threatening to kill, and single charges of rape, assault with intent to injure, unlawfully carrying a firearm and perverting the course of justice.

He was sentenced in the High Court at Whangārei to preventive detention, an open-ended prison sentence for offenders who pose a high risk to society.

The woman’s ordeal happened in 2016, soon after Heke-Gray had been released from an eight-year prison sentence for earlier sexual crimes.

It was described by the sentencing judge, Justice Christian Whata, as “10 days of horrible offending”.

Heke-Gray’s defence at trial was that the woman, who travelled from Wellington to Whangārei to be with him, consented to all sexual activity in lieu of a debt she owed him.

But a jury found he had sexually assaulted the woman in a toilet cubicle and a hotel room in Whangārei.

On one occasion, he placed a pistol in her mouth and to the back of her throat and told her: “If you ever cross me or if you ever dob me in to the police, I will blow the back of your head off.”

She was tattooed with his nickname above her eyebrow and Heke-Gray said if she ever left him, he would cut the tattoo out with a machete.

The woman managed to escape after visiting a sexual health clinic.

In a victim impact statement, she said she managed to get the tattoo removed. She felt extreme fear for her life at Heke-Gray’s hands, and was later diagnosed with PTSD.

Justice Whata said Heke-Gray’s father was in jail for serious violent offending for most of his childhood. His mother was also absent during a prison sentence for possession of heroin.

In the rare instances they were out at the same time, Heke-Gray witnessed his father physically abusing his mother.

At the age of eight, he was taken into the care of his paternal grandmother. By the age of 13 or 14, he was in state care.

Justice Whata said Heke-Gray, a Crips gang member, was kicked out of several homes and schools and started smoking methamphetamine at the age of 17.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.