Man jailed for abducting teen

The 41-year-old man who went on the run with a 14-year-old schoolgirl for nearly two weeks last year has been jailed for more than two years.

Craig Howard, a former Mongrel Mob member and father of seven, disappeared with Julie Davis from Mt Maunganui on July 4 last year. The pair were found 12 days later, naked in a Rotorua hotpool.

After previously pleading not guilty to a charge of abducting a young person under 16, Howard admitted the charge in October and was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court yesterday to two years and three months' jail.

In a police video interview played to the court last year, Julie said running away together was her idea. She denied she had a sexual relationship with Howard and said she regarded him as a father figure, a protector and someone she could talk to because she was unhappy at home and school.

Howard told the court that he had only been helping Julie, who had been suicidal, and there had been no sexual contact between the pair. But Judge Louis Bidois told him his relationship with Julie was unhealthy.

That relationship started when the pair met at Waingaro Hot Springs. They swapped phone numbers and in four months Julie called Howard 963 times and he phoned her 693 times.

One News reported yesterday that Julie Davis' mother Rose said the episode was a living hell.

Now 16, Julie Davis has never returned to school and no longer lives with her mother.

Mrs Davis said: "I really think it has completely ruined a lot of potential she had."

- NZPA