Former Auckland police officer Jason Karl Harris guilty of terrorising dominatrix

Source: Stuff.co.nz.

NEW-SEALAND – AUCKLAND – A former police officer will spend three months in home detention after harassing a dominatrix he was a client of.

Tales of the stalking behaviour, which included littering the victim’s property with saucy pictures of her and placing four fake advertisements of a sexual nature about her online, were revealed in the Auckland District Court on Monday.

Jason Karl Harris, 43, was sentenced for harassing a woman, accessing the police intelligence system without authorisation and cultivating cannabis.

At the sentencing the victim, who has name suppression, read an impact statement about how Harris’ behaviour had destroyed her life.

Harris had been a weekly client of hers in her work as a dominatrix for several years and a confidante when horrible events began happening in her life.

Several sexually explicit advertisements appeared in her name on dating websites, listing her home phone number.

Her children and mother had answered the phone to men seeking sex and she had to change her phone number.

She also installed a home security system with the help of Harris.

“My worst nightmare was coming home and finding my own backyard…had been covered in stolen A4 size prints of me at work as a dominatrix…this is where my children play and I wondered who would do this.”

The victim said she now suffered from paranoia and would leave lights on overnight in her house and get up at 5am each morning to do a perimeter check of her house.

She had moved her daughter to a new school out of fear for her safety.

During her statement the victim alleged Harris had been working as a cross-dressing gay prostitute, something she found unsettling as he was still working as a police officer at the time.

“One of the worst things, your honour, is I’ve always believed and I’ve brought up my children to believe, that the police are here to help us.

“It is devastating to have to tell my children that the person who is doing this to us is a policeman.”

Harris resigned as an officer with police based in Pukekohe in April after working there for eight years.

He is now employed as a customer services representative by BP.

Harris’ lawyer said he was remorseful and sorry for his “stupid” actions and also wanted to apologise to the police force.

He had accessed the police database to look up information on the victim because he was concerned one of her clients had gang connections.

But Judge John Bergseng dismissed this excuse, stating the logical action would have been to contact the victim to express his concerns.

He described the offending as “particularly cruel” and a “campaign of hatred”, which also involved sending two letters to the victim’s husband at his work along with explicit pictures.

Harris had only been caught after his computer IP address was identified by police.

They raided his house and also found 15 cannabis plants and 20 seedlings growing in a room.

The offending had a huge impact on the victim and the use of the police computer system to access information about the victim was of particular concern, the judge said.

“Your actions clearly left her in a state where she was terrified as to what might be coming next.”

He sentenced Harris to three months 14 days’ home detention, a fine of $600 for the cannabis charge and ordered him to pay $3000 reparation to the victim.

See larger photo: www.stuff.co.nz.