Police officer guilty of one sex charge

A former Christchurch police officer accused of extorting free sex from a prostitute has been found guilty of one charge of sex with consent induced by a threat.

Nathan Thorose Connolly, 31, was accused of one count of corruptly accepting a bribe and two counts of sex with consent induced by a threat.

He was found not guilty of accepting a bribe and not guilty of the second charge of sex with consent induced by a threat.

It can now be revealed that this is not the first time Connolly has been before the courts.

In 2005 he was convicted in a civil case of a "gratuitous assault" after he elbowed a man three times in the face while he was handcuffed in a patrol car - an incident the judge described as "truly outrageous".

The victim had failed a breath test and Connolly carried out the assault as he put a seatbelt on him in the back of the patrol car. The incident occurred after the pair had a scuffle, which followed Connolly pulling the man from the vehicle before handcuffing him.

Connolly was forced to pay his victim $5000 following the Greymouth incident.

This afternoon's jury signalled they had a verdict at 3.45pm, following seven and a half hours of deliberation.

Commenting on this afternoon's verdict Canterbury District Commander Superintendent Dave Cliff said it was "always disappointing when a person in a position of trust, abuses that".

Police were treated no differently to a member of the public in such a situation, he said.

While both criminal and professional investigations had begun these were terminated when Connolly "resigned of his own volition".

"A robust investigation has been undertaken and I can offer no other comment at this point as sentencing has not taken place."

Connolly joined police in November 2003 and resigned in December 2008.

The prosecution said Connolly, a former Christchurch traffic unit officer, stopped paying for sex with a Manchester St prostitute after he pulled her over one night in her car and told her he could give her $1000 worth of tickets and have her car towed.

Instead of fining her, he asked her to "do a job'' with him.

They drove in his police car to a Belfast cemetery where they had sex.

Free sex continued for almost a year afterwards, at times while he was uniform.

The prostitute testified that she did not ask for money as she was scared of him.

Connolly's defence maintained his "male ego'' took over and he presumed the woman was a willing party to the sex.

The woman never objected or asked for money and the one time she did say no, Connolly did not turn nasty or try to hold anything over her.

The defence said the woman gave her story a new slant after rumours began circulating that she was a police informant.

The jury retired to consider their verdicts at 3.30 yesterday.

He was remanded on bail for sentence on December 17.