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A prisoner who terrorised his former partner and her family from behind bars has been sentenced to another 20 months' jail after being found guilty of criminal harassment.
Glen Dallas Goldberg, 38, sent a flood of letters to the family.
One letter to his ex-partner's mother included photographs taken by the police of the scene where her defacto husband killed himself, though they did not show the body itself.
Goldberg was already serving a six-year term for breaching protection orders and attempting to defeat the course of justice involving similar stalking activity when the current offending occurred.
He was due for release in September, but passing sentence in North Shore District Court today, Judge Lawrence Hinton said the new term would be cumulative.
Goldberg's crusade against the family began because he was not permitted access to his son, born 10 months before he was sentenced in December 2004.
When his ex-partner got a protection order against Goldberg, he turned his attention to her mother.
At the 2004 sentencing, a psychiatric report referred to him as a vindictive "social terrorist".
Justice John Laurenson said at the time that he was "uniquely dishonest" and his offending amounted to "duplicitous, cunning and manipulative harassment".
Prosecutor Steve Haszard (correct) said that he same ingredients applied in the present case.
The earlier psychiatric report said that there had been at 10 victims of Goldberg's stalking activities and probably more.
Women were bombarded with hundreds of letters and phone calls. They would be followed and photographed with long-distance lenses.
One woman moved house in the dead of night to escape Goldberg's obsessive and unwanted attention after she discovered he had been under her house and had searched through her rubbish.
Mr Haszard said that, in addition to the sinister photographs obtained under the Official Information Act from the Justice Department, Goldberg was able to get details of his latest victim's bank statement, so he knew where she had been shopping and at precisely what time.
Mr Haszard said that he wove this information into his letters, suggesting he was having her watched.
The torment drove the woman and her family to flee to Australia.
Judge Hinton said that the tone of Goldberg's letters was insidious and his offending was cruel, frightening, distressing and repugnant.
He treated a weakened and worried victim contemptuously.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said they were not going to let Goldberg ruin their lives though Goldberg had made their lives "hell on earth".
Goldberg's lawyer, John Moroney, said that Goldberg was remorseful and now accepted his offending had caused distress to his victim.
He said that the offending was caused in the context of frustration and anger at his inability to see his son, who was very important to him.
Goldberg had written a letter of apology to the victim through the police.
But Mr Haszard said that the claim to now be remorseful was at odds with a letter Goldberg allegedly wrote to the officer in charge of the case.
He said that he was aware where the family were living in Australia and gang members were keeping an eye on his son.
He would cherish the day he was released and he would pick up a "piece" in Brisbane.
"This guy will go down in history and I'll video the whole thing and show it on the net."
It ends: "My grand finale includes several people and it's a good one. Like the ACDC song says 'I'm on a Highway to Hell'."
It is signed "Grim Reaper".
In her victim statement, his ex-partner's mother says they have been advised to change their names by deed poll and move to another state.
- NZPA
