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RNZ News
04-07-2025
- RNZ News
Hamilton sentencing: Michael Mead jailed for violent, painful sexual violation of woman
By Belinda Feek, Open Justice multimedia journalist of Michael Mead persisted in inflicting "intense pain" on the victim on multiple occasions. Photo: Supplied/123RF Warning: This story contains details about sexual offending that may upset some readers. A woman who was subjected to several violent and painful sexual assaults, including some with a wooden baton, says it caused her to suffer ongoing medical issues. Despite the woman's protests and pleas not to do it, Michael Mead persisted in inflicting "intense pain" on the victim on multiple occasions. Mead, 64, appeared for sentencing in the Hamilton District Court on Monday on two representative charges of sexual violation by unlawful connection during consensual sex. Crown solicitor Lexie Glaser pointed out to Judge Arthur Tompkins it wasn't the first time Mead had sexually assaulted a woman: he was jailed in the High Court at Wellington in 2009 for inserting a metal whisk into a woman's bottom. He then went on to reoffend and was recently found guilty by a Hamilton jury of two more charges, relating to his violating her with his fist and a wooden baton, which he kept stored under his bed. Judge Tompkins said the victim had pleaded, "No, please do not do it" to Mead, but he ignored her. The assaults caused "intense pain and bleeding", which caused her to seek medical attention. She spoke in court of the "significant and ongoing traumatic" effect the offending had on her. It had affected her ability to sleep, trust others, and work. Glaser urged the judge to hand down a minimum non-parole period of 50 percent. Michael Mead was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Mead had 42 previous convictions, including for indecent assault, blackmail and assaulting a female, but most seriously, the 2009 unlawful sexual connection. In that incident, which NZME wrote about at the time, Mead had spiked his victim's drinks at a party and committed the sex attack while she was in a drugged state. She woke up feeling pain in her bottom, and as if something was stuck there. She asked Mead, who lived in Whanganui at the time, to remove it, but he initially said "no". When he finally did, the item was revealed as a metal whisk with sharp bristles which had become caught. A few days later, he returned to her house, ripped her clothes off, and forced her to walk around the backyard naked. He then sent her emails containing digitally altered photographs taken from pornographic films, and said that if she complained to police he would send the images to her family and friends, saying they were taken at the party. Judge Tompkins labelled that offending as "particularly concerning". Mead's lawyer, Richard Barnsdale, urged the judge not to impose a minimum period of imprisonment (MPI), instead arguing in favour of letting the Parole Board decide when he would be set free. "For Mr Mead to convince the Parole Board to be safe to be released, he will need to do a lot of work and see a lot of people, and make a lot of alterations to his life," Barnsdale said. "[Mead] says that he hasn't had any counselling yet and that is the only way that he can be made safe to be released into the community." He urged the judge to take a starting point of around 10 years. When reminded about this previous conviction, Barnsdale said his client had "a major personal and psychological problem in this area and it would have to be treated while he is serving his sentence". "That is a factor more likely to concern the Parole Board," he told the judge. He asked that Mead be released from prison "while he is still not too old and can form another life in a safe way". Judge Tompkins noted how the recent offending had changed the victim's life "significantly". After taking a starting point of 11 years, Judge Tompkins found there were no mitigating circumstances, particularly because Mead had taken the case to trial. As for the MPI, Judge Tompkins noted Mead's previous jail term "didn't have the kind of protective effect which the community is entitled to expect". Because he had reoffended, the judge deemed an MPI appropriate, since he'd had "ample" opportunity to do any rehabilitative work. "Mr Mead is at a very high risk of committing harm [in the future]," the judge said, as he confirmed Mead will serve an MPI of 50 percent. Sexual harm Family Violence If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Yahoo
Disclosure work under way for fresh inquest into man abducted from south Belfast
Disclosure work is under way in an inquest into the death of a Belfast man whose badly beaten body was discovered in the Republic of Ireland. The body of Thomas Lockard, 34, was found by the side of a road at Raskeagh in Co Louth two days after he disappeared from his home on the Malone Road in south Belfast on April 25 1998. Nobody has been convicted over the death. A fresh inquest was ordered into his death last year by the Northern Ireland Attorney General, Dame Brenda King. Mr Lockard's sister Alice was at Belfast Coroner's Court for the first preliminary hearing in the case on Monday morning. It heard that a deadline of October 2 has been set for the disclosure of non-sensitive information from police as well as the Ministry of Defence, Police Ombudsman, Forensic Science Northern Ireland and the Public Prosecution Service. Footage from news reports is also being sought from RTE. Counsel for the coroner Philip Henry said there are 34 folders of PSNI non-sensitive material which are currently being prepared, and searches within the MoD remain ongoing. Leona Gillen, acting for the Crown Solicitor's Office, said both the PSNI and the MoD do not foresee any problems with meeting the deadline. In terms of PSNI sensitive material, the inquest will be impacted by a six-month pause to September 6 on work on any case other than the Omagh Bombing Inquiry. Ms Gillen said she will seek instruction on timescales around that work. The hearing was also told that a letter had been found dated November 2019, which had been sent by coroner Anne-Louise Toal to the next of kin's solicitor in her previous role working as a solicitor in the Attorney General's Office. Mr Henry said: 'Having spoken with you this morning and after we identified the letter, it was clear to us that you didn't have any significant involvement in processing the section 14 application, and it appears that your only involvement was in relation to the letter itself and issues in and around it. 'But we thought at the outset better that everyone know that. It's quite apparent from the fact that whenever you were assigned the case it didn't trigger any memories of previous involvement which rather demonstrates the limited nature of your involvement with it while in the Attorney General's Office but we put it on everyone's radar so that they can consider their position.' The next preliminary hearing is set to take place on October 6.
