Man guilty of offences against Indian women

A 25-year-old man accused of taking advantage of the strict Indian upbringing of six women has been found guilty of multiple blackmail and sex charges.

The Auckland man, who has interim name suppression, was found guilty of six rape charges, and not guilty of one rape charge but guilty of an alternative count of sexual connection with a young person.

He was also found guilty of five charges of blackmail, five of unlawful detention, six of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one of attempted sexual connection.

The rape charges related to four of the six complainants, most of whom the man met via internet networking sites, where they had posted their profiles.

Crown prosecutor Josh Shaw said the six did not know each other, apart from two who were school friends.

However, they were all of Indian ethnicity and all came from strict cultural and religious backgrounds. Most came into contact with the man via the internet and were manipulated into having sex with him.

Three were 15 at the time of the offences against them. The oldest was a 22-year-old student who began an on-line relationship with the man in May 2007.

The defendant's lawyer, Shane Cassidy, said the accused man was someone "with not an honourable bone in his body" who might have played with young women's emotions, but the sex was consensual and he was not a criminal.

The man will be sentenced at the High Court in Auckland on November 13.

- NZPA