He sent it to three other people. The woman never consented to it being made or shared.
On January 10, Williams banged on the kitchen window of her mother’s house.
The victim looked outside and saw him in the driveway.
Williams threw stones at the house and made an intimidating hand gesture, mimicking holding a firearm.
He sent the woman several messages over a day demanding money and threatening what would happen if she didn’t send it.
“Send me $100 and send me a screenshot or I’ll unleash hell bro”, he said.
Others included:
- “Send me $100 right now or these are getting sent I swear it”.
- “Tell your mother not to bother ringing the cops or I’ll give her a reason to.”
- “Have you done it or not ffs [for f***’s sake] I’ll pull back up and shoot your mum’s tyres out.”
- “Whipidydo one cop car lol I’ll have the armed offenders there if you want it like that.”
Crown prosecutor Kris Bucher asked Judge Bergseng to impose a prison starting point of three years, describing Williams’ actions as “deplorable”.
Williams’ lawyer Scott Mills said the offending was driven by Williams’ methamphetamine habit.
He said the blackmail text messages were unsophisticated and “doomed to fail”, with the evidence easily found.
Mills said Williams was willing to address his drug use but was having trouble getting residential rehabilitation.
Judge Bergseng said Williams had several previous convictions in New Zealand and Australia.
He said he was a 501 deportee – named after an Australian law that allows visas to be cancelled on character grounds – and arrived in New Zealand in March last year.
Judge Bergseng noted Williams admitted his offending was “pure nasty” and he appeared genuinely remorseful to a pre-sentence report writer.
He admitted his actions were selfish and he did not consider the emotional impacts on the victim.
Judge Bergseng said methamphetamine was the obvious issue, with his habit starting at 16 and impacting most areas of his life, including work, relationships and fatherhood.
He was using up to 1g a day.
He was jailed in 2015 for a robbery to repay drug debts and had drug dealing convictions.
Judge Bergseng noted to Nicholas that being sent to jail was not how he would have wanted to spend his birthday.
He sentenced Williams to two years and 14 days in jail, and urged him to kick his drug habit and leave the Mongrel Mob.
“Methamphetamine has cost you so much in your life.”
He acknowledged being a 501 and away from his support networks in Australia was difficult.
Residential rehabilitation was hard to get and he encouraged him to take up the opportunity if it came his way.
“You don’t want to spend your 50th birthday repeating the same.”
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.