Man sent sexual texts to girl, 16

A Rotorua man who bombarded a teen girl with dirty text messages had only recently been released from jail after committing underage sex offences.

Jeffrey Raymond Wiseman, a 52-year-old driver, left the Rotorua District Court yesterday with a final warning that he faces jail again if he reoffends, after he admitted texting sex messages to a 16-year-old girl.

Wiseman was also sentenced to 12 months' supervision and will have to undergo a psychological assessment and complete any counselling or other recommended programmes and courses.

He had admitted one charge of misuse of a telephone device.

The maximum penalty for the charge is three months in jail or a $2000 fine.

Wiseman has admitted sending 57 text messages that were of a suggestive and sexual nature to the 16-year-old girl, who was known to him.

Wiseman sent the text messages over a four-day period starting on October 23 last year.

Judge Chris McGuire said Wiseman would have had to have known that what he was doing was wrong, especially since he had a history of sex offences.

"You have only recently been released from prison for serious sexual offending with under-age females," he said.

Judge McGuire said Wiseman's offending proved he was either "extraordinarily dumb" or he had forgotten the rehabilitative progress he had made since his last offence.

When spoken to by police, Wiseman admitted the facts and said he never meant any harm.

Judge McGuire said he was prepared to go along with the recommendation of Wiseman's lawyer, Tim Barclay and gave him 12 months' supervision with conditions and a final prison warning.

Detective Sergeant John Wilson, who leads the Rotorua police's Sexual Abuse Team, said there would always be people who would use cellphones for the wrong reasons especially given more people had them.

"People find other ways to get up to naughty things. People are going to use them for mischief," he said.

Senior Sergeant Dennis Murphy agreed and said there were many ways that cellphones were being used in crimes.

He said not only did people threaten and sexually harass others by ringing and sending text messages but cellphones were also being used to arrange crime and contact people involved in crime.

Police have noticed that the misuse of cellphones has become more prevalent due to their everyday use.

"People have cellphones like they carry a comb in their pocket now, it's just an accessory," Mr Murphy said.

He said that with technology advancing, criminals were also using cellphones to take photos of their crimes and victims and even video record them, which he believed was done for "trophy" reasons.

"There was a recent crime in Rotorua where a victim was being set upon by a group of people [and it was caught on video using a cellphone].

"I think it's just a technological development that we have to deal with and adapt to."

Mr Murphy encouraged anyone victimised by sexual harassment via text messaging or text bullying to contact police.

"What we need them to do is save the texts or whatever and contact the police.

"We work in with Telecom or phone companies and we certainly can bring charges against people where threats or criminal behaviour is evident."

But cellphones can also work against criminals.

Wiseman's offending comes at a time when police are also encouraging people to snap potential crimes on their mobile phones - providing they don't put themselves in any danger.

They say video phones and other portable recording devices may provide a useful tool for investigating crimes.

Christchurch central police area commander Inspector Gary Knowles has said filming criminal activities could lead to much faster investigations.