James Hislop’s teen victim says her ‘first kiss will always be with a predator’

Architectural technician James "Jimmy" Hislop has been sentenced in the Nelson District Court on a historic charge of sexual connection with a 13-year-old college student.

A man’s sexual offending against a 13-year-old in a public park has come back to haunt him a decade on.

Architectural designer James “Jimmy” Hislop has been sentenced to 10 months of home detention for the historic offence that was started and enabled on social media and which left the young victim devastated.

In early 2014 the pair connected and began communicating on the social media app Whisper, which allows users to post and share photos and video messages anonymously.

In March of that year, Hislop and the victim went to a park where he twice violated her while trying to kiss her.

“My first kiss will always be with a predator,” she said in her victim impact statement, read in court today on her behalf.

He was 20, and she was 13, but in her school uniform, he “thought she was 16”, Hislop claimed early on.

In July last year, the police knocked on Hislop’s door and he was subsequently charged with committing sexual conduct with a young person aged under 16.

Hislop, who now lives in the North Island, appeared for sentencing in the Nelson District Court, dressed in a sharp royal blue suit and tie.

He looked on nervously at the judge as the facts of what happened and the victim’s statement were read out.

The victim had been on Whisper when she was contacted by Hislop who gave his name as Jimmy.

They began messaging each other, and when the victim learned he was 20, she told him she was 13. However, they arranged to meet on a Tuesday afternoon, after school.

Once at the park, Hislop put his arm around the victim’s waist and then put his hand up her skirt and violated her before a member of the public walked past, and the victim told him her mother would soon be arriving.

They left the area and Hislop caught a bus home.

The victim said in her statement that she was naive and at the time, didn’t see the danger or the harm it would cause.

It wasn’t until years later, when she was caring for a 13-year-old girl, that it dawned on her.

“I realised I was strong enough to do something, and now, we are here.”

In the years between she had suffered significant emotional trauma and had turned her anger inwards, and had turned to drugs, alcohol and self-harm.

In her statement, the victim described having met Hislop again afterwards, to try and make sense of the encounter, but “learned too late” she could not change what had happened.

She was then diagnosed with complex PTSD and a major depressive disorder and had struggled with intimate, romantic relationships.

She had, however, managed to gain a degree and was working in a career she loved.

“I am safe,” she said.

Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber said Hislop had spent 10 years without being accountable for what he had done while the victim had struggled.

He also kept the truth from sports referees to gain a position as a sports coach.

Webber said Hislop also lacked insight and displayed a sense of entitlement that led to report writers assessing him as a medium risk of re-offending.

Lawyer Michael Vesty (pictured) said there was no way of finding out if the hardship suffered by the victim could be attributed solely to Hislop.

Defence lawyer Michael Vesty took issue with the risk assessment.

“This happened a decade ago. He is now 30. It is difficult to see when that’s put together, how the risk applies,” Vesty said.

He said the social media narrative presented to him later was “very different” to how the victim described it when she re-engaged with Hislop.

He said there was no way of finding out if the hardship suffered by the victim could be attributed solely to Hislop and to “one event”.

Judge Tony Zohrab said in setting a start point of two years and three months in prison, that the key factors were the large age difference, which Hislop knew about early on, and the degree of planning.

“It was clear what your intention was in how you conducted yourself.”

Hislop was given a discount for his early guilty plea but there was “no scope” for deduction for good character.

Judge Zohrab arrived at a sentence of 10 months of home detention, which he said was not a soft option.

The sentence included strict conditions and post-release conditions for six months.

Hislop avoided being registered as a child sex offender, which Judge Zohrab said was not appropriate under the circumstances.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.