Christopher Roger King, a former ambulance driver who sexually assaulted patients, is pictured leaving the Napier courthouse in 2014. Photo / Paul Taylor

WARNING: This article describes sexual offending against vulnerable women and girls and may be distressing for some readers.

A former St John officer who sexually assaulted vulnerable patients in the back of an ambulance has had his strict parole conditions eased, but remains electronically monitored on an ankle bracelet.

ChristopherRoger King is now allowed to leave the Waikato region, where he had been restricted on release from prison last year.

However, he is still not allowed to enter Hawke’s Bay, including Central Hawke’s Bay, where he offended against four female patients between 2010 and 2013.

His parole conditions, including to submit to electronic monitoring and not to associate with people under 16, are likely to remain in place until his statutory release date in May 2029.

A jury found him guilty in 2014 of eight charges relating to the indecent and sexual assault of four women, aged between 15 and 57, in the back of his ambulance.

Each of the women he assaulted required medical assistance.

They included a teenager who had been beaten by her boyfriend, a woman suffering depression and threatening to harm herself, a young woman with a terminal illness and a woman who suffered from temporary paralysis.

King also pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual assault against two girls aged 16 and under between 2002 and 2006, in Napier.

Judge Geoff Rea said in sentencing King that the case was one of the worst of its type to come before the courts of New Zealand and no mercy should be granted to King.

“This is the first case I am aware of that has seen a total breach of trust ... you repaid that trust by sexually molesting them.

“Over 11 years, you sexually molested six different people.”

King attempted to fight his convictions all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court justices noted that during that battle he had defended the charges against him “aggressively”, subjecting victims to vigorous cross-examination and attacking their character and credibility.

The Parole Board has said: “Mr King lied to protect himself and falsely discredit his victims.”

Restrictions imposed on movement

When he was first released, King was required to stay within a prescribed area in Waikato, to ensure that he did not have contact with victims.

At his last Parole Board hearing, in June this year, the areas where he was allowed to travel were widened to most of New Zealand, but not Hawke’s Bay.

“The remaining victims’ concerns appear to be addressed by an exclusion zone covering Hawke’s Bay, including the Central Hawke’s Bay region,” the Parole Board decision said.

The change to the exclusion area was made partly to make it easier for him to find a job.

King’s conditions also include electronic monitoring, restrictions on using the internet, which he can do only under supervision, and disclosing any intimate relationship he has to a probation officer.

He is “not to enter or loiter near” any school, park, library, swimming pool, recreational facility or other places where there are children under 16.

King has to attend courses, treatment and counselling as directed.

He is also banned from having contact with any of his victims.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.

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