Tyler Newall-Simon sent his ex-partner more than 60 unwanted text messages during a 12-week period, breaching his protection order several times. Photo / 123rf
A man “obsessed” with his former partner sent her more than 60 text messages through fake social media accounts, that included derogatory messages and images of sex toys.
Tyler Newall-Simon has now been warned by Hamilton District Court Judge Brett Crowley that if he offends against the woman again, he will be going to jail.
The 27-year-old was served with a protection order in 2019 and was convicted of breaching it a year later.
He and the woman have a child together and he was only allowed to contact her through a third party.
Despite that Newall-Simon sent the woman more than 46 texts through a variety of fake social media accounts in June this year.
One fake account was in the name of a person who had previously traumatised the woman, while from another account he referred to self-harm, sent her images of sex toys, mentioned children dying, and messages about her unfounded promiscuity.
A charge relating to the unlawful possession of a BB gun involved a run-in with a man on June 26 where after an argument he lifted up his shirt to reveal an object similar to a firearm. The BB gun was found in his car by police soon after.
He was arrested and bailed for those charges when he contacted the woman again, this time sending her about 20 messages in July and August, and again threatened to harm himself.
Counsel Lyn Walkington accepted her client’s offending was aggravated due to him offending while on bail and sending so many messages in breach of the protection order, but pushed for a community detention sentence.
Judge Crowley said the charges were serious and the context involved him assuming the identity of someone who had previously traumatised her.
Walkington said Newall-Simon accepted they were “particularly nasty” texts and had upset her.
A pre-sentence report noted his “emotional immaturity” which she said was “really the background to this.
“He has tried to back out of this relationship previously. He even moved to Christchurch last year but the victim came to stay with him,” Walkington said.
“I’m not trying to justify it but it gives you an idea,” she said, adding that he knew his behaviour was “unacceptable”.
Judge Crowley said the texts were clearly designed to cause the victim “maximum psychological damage” despite her having “no blame whatsoever.
The judge said, “reading between the lines”, it appeared the woman attended a restorative justice conference to try and “convince him that their relationship was over”, even though he still did not believe it was.
“[She] simply wants him to leave her alone”.
At the conference, Newall-Simon blamed the woman for him having no contact with his child and that she should “drop this stupid stuff like supervised contact because ‘he doesn’t need that’”.
The judge said while there seemed to be a “pro forma apology” he also appeared to blame the woman.
His comments to a pre-sentence report writer that he still loved the woman and that he should be in a relationship with her were “very worrying”, the judge said.
Newall-Simon was at a high risk of reoffending which was based on his “obsession” with her.
He had also displayed no remorse.
Judge Crowley said the offending was too serious for community detention, and instead imposed six months home detention on all charges but warned him that if he offended against her again, he would be going to prison.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and been a journalist for 19.
