‘Sick and evil person’ — sexual predator jailed

• Published date: 29 May 2023
• Author: Leighton Keith
• Publication title: Whanganui Chronicle

A depraved sexual predator who degraded his vulnerable victims both physically and psychologically has avoided an indefinite prison sentence but has been told his future is in his hands

David Falamoe appeared before Justice Francis Cooke in the High Court at Wellington on Friday for sentencing on a raft of sex charges.

Falamoe’s offending took place during a five-year period in the Whanganui region and involved five victims, including two children aged 6 and 10, an adult woman with mental health issues, a vulnerable teenager who he punched in the stomach when she claimed she was pregnant and a gender-fluid individual, the court heard.

The 41-year-old was found guilty on a significant number of the charges by juries following two High Court trials in June and November 2022, and he only avoided standing trial for a third time by pleading guilty to a charge of indecent assault at the end of his second trial.

On one occasion Falamoe degraded his victim by coercing her to let his dog get involved in a sex act but the dog only licked her ankle.

Justice Cooke said Falamoe was an intelligent and manipulative person whose offending involved a common theme of getting close to his victims before using physical violence and psychological pressure, including threats of self-harm, to get them to agree to demeaning sexual abuse.

“You are a sexual predator who uses whatever means available to get whatever you wanted,” he told Falamoe.

Whanganui Crown solicitor Michele Wilkinson-Smith argued a sentence of preventive detention was justified, not to punish Falamoe but to provide protection to the community from ongoing harm.

Wilkinson-Smith said Falamoe, who had 65 previous convictions — 29 for violence mainly against intimate partners — had shown no remorse for his actions and no insight into the harm he had caused.

She said the lifelong sentence would allow the flexibility to protect the public from Falamoe in the future, if treatment programmes were not effective.

“If he makes progress, he can be released.

“If he fails, he goes back to prison.”

Defence lawyer John Gwilliam submitted Falamoe had suffered his own personal trauma, witnessed his father...