'Just ridiculous': Drunken partygoer jailed for pulling down stranger’s pants

A drunken partygoer pulled down a stranger’s pants as the man play-fought with children, thinking it was funny.

A judge disagreed, describing it as a “weird and strange” act that left the man vulnerable and warranted a five-month term of imprisonment.

The 31-year-old, who cannot be named, was sentenced for indecent assault by Judge Gene Tomlinson at Whangārei District Court.

The court heard that earlier this year, the man was drinking at a function where several people, including children, were present.

The adult male victim, whom the defendant had just met, was play-fighting with children when the horseplay spilled into a hallway.

The defendant went behind the man while he was on the floor, pulled his pants down and touched his bottom. The victim pulled his pants up and quietly told the defendant to “f*** off”.

Judge Tomlinson said while some people might brush off such an incident, a range of factors could influence how it affected them.

“This sort of offence can impact them because they extrapolate it out. They think about their own kids, they think about other relationships and it’s all dependent,” the judge said.

In a victim impact statement read in court, the victim said he was upset it occurred in front of children and had to keep his cool to avoid “freak[ing] them out”.

“I’m okay, but I rethink the whole situation a lot and it makes me angry, extremely angry and upset and the anxiety I had showed straight away when it happened.”

The victim also said it made him think of the strength of victims of similar offending who spoke up and had to navigate court.

The man’s lawyer Jamie Lymburn said his client told pre-sentence report writers he thought he had been joking, but had since come to realise the seriousness of the situation.

Judge Tomlinson said he didn’t buy that for a minute.

“Pulling another bloke’s pants down and touching their backside as a joke when you don’t know them. I mean it’s just ridiculous,” Judge Tomlinson said.

Lymburn submitted alcohol was a factor in the man’s life and he had since expressed a desire to make changes.

“This is just drunken offending and drunken offending doesn’t get a [sentencing] discount because you’re boozed,” the judge responded.

Several discussions were held about the victim’s vulnerability compared with other indecent assault cases, such as those involving someone being in bed alone.

“He can’t turn around and go, ‘oi’, and make a big scene because he doesn’t want to freak out the kids,” the judge said.

“That’s where the vulnerability comes in because he can’t remonstrate straight away.”

Lymburn submitted the skin-to-skin contact was “momentary”, to which Judge Tomlinson responded it was a “spontaneous, weird, strange act that makes no sense”.

The judge accepted there was no sexual motivation and it was a short-lived drunken incident.

Even so, Judge Tomlinson said it was an invasion of someone’s body when they were not expecting it.

“He was vulnerable to that attack by you and I characterise it as that because that’s what it would have felt like and that’s the impact that it’s had on him.

“It brings a level of fear, anger, insecurity and exposure that I would not want anyone to feel.”

Judge Tomlinson sentenced him to five months’ imprisonment.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.