A woman trying to keep the peace at a motel she managed was subjected to repeated unwanted sexual contact from a drunk resident who continued to grab her private parts as she pushed him away and told him “no”.

The offender, Jackson Antoni Ratima, later laughed when police spoke to him about the sex crimes and told a probation officer it was just “fun and games”.

When jailing Ratima on Monday for the offending, Judge Gregory Hikaka told the New Plymouth District Court that the incident had left the woman “very distressed” and Ratima banned from the accommodation facility.

The 40-year-old Taranaki man had been living at the New Plymouth motel, which cannot be named in order to protect the manager’s identity, at the time of the July 20, 2022, assaults.

That day, Ratima plied himself with booze - despite his prison release conditions at the time stipulating he was not to drink alcohol - and began to disrupt other motel residents.

After entering a room where three females and two children were socialising, they called the motel manager to have him removed from the area.

The manager arrived and was able to coax Ratima out and move him in the direction of his room. But in the process, he leaned in and kissed the woman on her cheek, which began a series of assaults.

When she pushed him away and told him “no”, Ratima then grabbed the woman’s breast.

Again, she told him “no” and while opening his door and advising him to go to bed, he reached out and “cupped” the woman’s vagina, the court heard.

This caused her to jump backward and rebuff his advances for a third time.

Ratima then went into his room, but only for a short time as he soon exited and continued to harass other motel users.

When the manager returned and attempted to steer him back to his room, he again grabbed her breast and squeezed it, before cupping her vagina for a second time.

The woman yelled at Ratima and the incident was reported to police soon after.

In court, Judge Hikaka said that when questioned by police, Ratima laughed and declined to make a statement.

However, when spoken to by a probation officer he initially claimed he was too intoxicated to remember the incident before going on to describe it as “fun and games”, the judge said.

During the interview with the probation officer, Ratima, who has 82 previous convictions dating back to 1999, none of which were of a sexual nature, acknowledged he had a problem with alcohol.

He was assessed as a high risk of reoffending and a moderate risk of harm to others.

Judge Hikaka noted the aggravated features in the case included the victim’s vulnerability, a degree of invasiveness, and premeditation.

 “It was, in a sense, a continuous course of action with multiple incidents of indecent assaults on her,” the judge said.

“The first ‘no’ you got should have been enough but instead you carried on.”

On admitted charges of indecently assaulting a female over the age of 16, and two of breaching release conditions, Judge Hikaka took an overall start point of 28 months imprisonment.

Ratima was then jailed for 18 months after allowances were made for his guilty pleas and personal circumstances. Home detention was not available to him, the judge said.

Six months of special release conditions were also imposed and included conditions to attend an assessment with a psychologist and follow-up treatment, and to abstain from using alcohol.

The judge advised Ratima to use the support he will receive once out of prison to address his background issues and to kick the booze.

His past “need not define his future”, Judge Hikaka told him.

- Tara Shaskey, Open Justice