Dance party sex offences admitted

Mateo Melina Nixon was convicted and remanded for sentencing next month. Photo / File

A Christchurch man involved in outdoor dance party events committed a series of sexual offences, including rapes, at ''raves'' in several parts of the South Island between 2009 and 2012, the Dunedin District Court heard yesterday.

Mateo Melina Nixon (30) admitted 13 charges - six rapes, three sexual violations, two indecent assaults and two sexual offences against a young person under 16.

He was convicted and remanded for sentence next month.

An application for bail on the basis Nixon had recently been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder and had begun counselling sessions was not seen by Judge Kevin Phillips as sufficient reason to allow the defendant to remain in the community until sentencing.

The offending was very serious and the inevitable penalty was prison, the judge said, remanding Nixon in custody.

The Crown summary of facts from counsel Craig Power described the dance party scene as characterised by binge drinking and drug taking.

Several of the offences were committed at a festival in 2011, a "rave" in 2011, and a party in 2011.

Three offences, involving a rape and two sexual violations, were committed in Dunedin in 2009 and 2010.

Another three offences, an indecent assault of a woman in 2010, and two sexual offences against a young person under 16, happened in 2011 when the victims were affected by alcohol.

Two incidents, a rape and a sexual violation, involved offending against a woman who woke to find Nixon in the bed touching her. She yelled at him, telling him to leave then went back to sleep. Later in the night, Nixon returned and had sex with her while she was sleeping.

Another rape happened in 2012 and was against a woman known to Nixon.