A man who kidnapped a 12-year-old girl for sex ended up being outsmarted by her, a court was told today.
Anthony Paul Treanor, 31, who suffered a serious head injury in a car crash in his teenage years, pleaded guilty to kidnapping the girl, and doing an indecentact.
Christchurch District Court was told the girl was walking to catch a bus home in suburban New Brighton on the late evening of October 11 last year New Brighton when Treanor repeatedly approached her while driving his car.
She refused but when he tried to grab her she was so scared she got in.
"In a social context there must be some concern that a young girl, aged 12, would be out and about on the street alone at night," Judge Murray Abbott said.
He said Treanor stopped his car at a park with the girl and tried to get her to drink alcohol with him in "an attempt to reduce the victim's resistance to your attentions to her".
He showed her pictures on his cellphone, rubbed her arm and upper leg several times.
But unknown to Treanor the girl had guided him to park at a place where her aunt lived nearby.
Treanor locked the doors but the girl used a ruse to lean across him, flick the switch that unlocked the doors, and made a successful break for her aunt's house.
"Were it not for the victim's presence of mind it may well be that what happened could have developed a far greater seriousness," Judge Abbott said.
Defence counsel David Ruth said Treanor's denials to the probation officer who interviewed him were a result of his short-term memory loss due to his head injury, and he admitted the events in an interview with police.
Mr Ruth noted the girl had been very pleased that Treanor pleaded guilty and she did not have to give evidence in court.
Judge Abbott jailed Treanor for one year and nine months, granted leave for him to apply for home detention, and ordered him to take assessment and treatment for alcohol abuse, and psychological counselling as directed.
