Police officer found guilty of terrorizing dominatrix

A former police officer in New Zealand carried out a four-month "campaign of hatred" against a dominatrix he had been seeing then helped her install a security system to try and catch the culprit, a court has heard. Jason Karl Harris, 43, appeared in Auckland District Court on Monday afternoon after admitting to intimidating the woman and unlawfully accessing the police database to find out more about her. He was sentenced to three and a half months home detention, 100 hours of community work and ordered to pay the woman $3,000 - what she had paid for the home-security system. Harris also had to stand in the dock while the victim revealed he was a "cross-dressing, gay prostitute". The victim, who read her victim-impact statement in court, said the former Pukekohe police officer clearly took great pleasure in seeing the stress he caused her.

The court heard the man had a "professional" relationship with her for a number of years and the pair had formed a friendship. So when four posts were put on sexual websites advertising the victim's home phone number and address prompting a barrage of calls, she confided in Harris. And when she found her lawn and backyard covered in explicit A4 prints of her and numerous business cards tacked to her family home that she shared with her husband and children, it was Harris she turned to to make her home more secure. The woman described the offending, between February and June, as her "worst nightmare" but could come up with no real explanation for why it happened. Harris even sent letters to her husband at work, which included further explicit photos of the victim. The letters "outlined what you considered to be her immoral lifestyle", Judge John Bergseng said. The victim said the ongoing abuse meant she was unable to sleep and lost 10kg over the four months.
"The irony is he tried to ruin my life but ended up ruining his own life and now everybody knows." she said. When police were informed about the offending online ads, they tracked the IP address and found it came from Harris's computer. A search warrant executed at the defendant's home turned up more than just electronic evidence. Police also found a hydroponic cannabis set-up with 15 plants and 20 seedlings. Judge Bergseng said there was nothing to suggest it was for anything other than personal use and fined Harris $600. Further inquiries also found that before he had quit the force in April, the defendant had searched the victim's name three times on the police's National Intelligence Application. He explained it was to ensure she did not have gang or drug links and therefore minimise the risk of bringing the police into disrepute by his involvement with her, but the judge said that explanation made no sense.

Judge Bergseng said there was a high level of cruelty inherent in Harris's actions and a severe breach of trust considering he was working as a police officer for part of the time the intimidation was ongoing. "Your actions clearly put her in a state where she was terrified as to what may be coming next," he said. "You would have known exactly what her family situation was . . . leaving photos attached to the house was, in my view, particularly cruel." But he was given discounts for his previous good character, his efforts at rehabilitation and his early guilty pleas. His lawyer Larissa Mulder said the "relationship" with the dominatrix had left her client in a lot of debt but he was determined to make reparation for the emotional harm he caused. Harris also apologised through his lawyer for bringing the police into disrepute. His home detention sentence was deferred for two weeks so he could organize things with his new job at BP. Outside court the victim said she would have preferred to see Harris locked up but was happy he would be named and shamed.