BMX star guilty of sex attacks

A 19-year-old Canterbury BMX star sexually assaulted two 14-year-old girls in a Rangiora schoolyard.

Police believe more victims of Troy Michael Hansen may come forward and have opposed his name suppression in the High Court.

Hansen is part of a Rangiora family of prominent BMX bike racers.

Last year, he competed at the BMX world championships in Adelaide, where his sister, Tahlia, won the 12-year-old girls' title.

Hansen pleaded guilty on January 20 to indecently assaulting the girls in the grounds of Ashgrove Primary School last October.

A High Court judge refused his appeal for continued name suppression last week.

The victims' families told The Press the crime was "a family's worst nightmare – something that no young female should ever have to go through".

Court documents said Hansen met the two girls as they were cutting through the school's grounds about 4pm on Sunday, October 25.

He diverted one of the girl's attention and pulled the other behind a classroom.

He pinned her against a wall and kissed and groped her while she struggled to get free. The pair then rejoined the other girl, whom Hansen led behind the classroom and assaulted in a similar manner. She kneed him and the girls ran off.

Detective Dale Forman, of the Christchurch South police, said the assaults had left the girls "traumatised".

Hansen has three previous convictions for sexual connection with a person aged 12 to 16, relating to offending in 2007.

"With the mentality of this particular person, we do hold the fear that once he is named, others may come forward," Forman said.

The attacks were "opportunist".

The girls' families said they were "devastated".

"The offender's actions have changed these two young girls' lives forever," they said.

In denying bail and name suppression at the High Court in Christchurch last week, Justice Chisholm said imprisonment was "virtually inevitable".

"The offending ... seems to have been premeditated and is made worse by his assault of the second young lady after assaulting the first."

Hansen will be sentenced next Wednesday. The charges carry maximum terms of seven years.

- © Fairfax NZ News