A man who sexually violated two women and assaulted a third while burgling homes in central Wellington poses a grave risk to the community, a Wellington court was told.
Justice Gendall sentenced Christian Harry Brusey, 46, to preventive detention for the attacks with a minimum jail term of eight years.
Brusey, masked and armed with ropes to tie up his victims, broke into the homes of three sleeping women. In one attack, Brusey sexually violated his victim then punched her so hard he broke her jaw in two places. In another, he tied up a 56-year-old woman, violated her, then shut her in a wardrobe while he ransacked her house.
Brusey was caught after he dropped his cellphone outside one of the homes he broke into.
Brusey has racked up 220 convictions in a 30-year criminal career that began when he was 15. But as a child he was more used to a silver spoon than steel bars.
He was adopted at the age of four by wealthy arts-lovers Phyllis and Harry Brusey, both OBE.
He was schooled at the exclusive Wellesley College, but classmates told One News Brusey was a trouble-maker and a bully. One described how Brusey pushed him into a pit of kitchen waste, and another time smashed a violin in a fit of rage at a birthday party.
When his parents died Brusey is understood to have inherited $1 million which he squandered on drugs.
Detective Sergeant Tim Leitch said Brusey probably could have done something good with his life but instead he chose a life of crime.
