A self-styled "creep catcher" who publicly shamed, filmed and posted to the internet images of his "citizen's arrests" of purported paedophiles could soon be released from jail.
Connor Bevins, 22, quickly gained an online following of thousands for his "Palmy Creep Catchers" Facebook and Youtube posts of him confronting men he claimed were meeting under-age girls and boys for sex.
But in some cases he'd told people he'd lured into his trap, using dating websites or apps, the people they thought they were speaking to were over the legal age for sex.
In other cases, he'd pretended to be younger than 16, but his targets didn't believe him, in one case because they'd seen Bevins' profile picture.
Some of the men he'd posted video online of had suicidal thoughts afterwards and one died by suicide 20 days after the video of Bevins confronting him was published.
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In April, Bevins was jailed for two years and eight months for posting harmful digital communications, but in a just-released decision, the High Court has granted Bevins' appeal against the sentence.
Justice Francis Cooke instead imposed a sentence of two years' jail, giving Bevins permission to apply to the district court for home detention instead, which would be for 12 months.
The judge ruled the district court was too harsh in the "starting point" it adopted for sentencing calculations.
But Cooke said the offending was at the "upper end of the scale".
In the case of the man who died by suicide, Bevins had chatted with him online, purporting to be a 25-year-old woman.
When the man turned up to the arranged meeting place with the "woman", outside the Palmerston North courthouse, Bevins approached the car, opened the door and yelled: "We're here from Palmy Creep Catchers. You're here to meet a 15-year-old girl for underage sex."
Bevins later told police the man "should have a bullet in his head".
Cooke said in all but one case the men lured by Bevins had no reason to believe they might have been chatting online with someone underage, and the person who thought they were talking with someone underage was clear no sex could take place.
"Mr Bevins was engaged in vigilante action and he involved other persons in the retribution action that was involved," Cooke said.
"The actions assumed guilt and ran the risk of erroneous victimisation. This is a particularly concerning aspect of the offending. In the present case, the victims were innocent of having committed any offences."
Cooke did not agree with defence lawyer William Kronast that Bevins should have received a larger discount than three months for mental health problems, on top the discounts he received for his youth.
Bevins suffers symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after "severe trauma" in his childhood.
"As a child, Mr Bevins was emotionally and physically neglected by his parents and subject to sexual abuse. He also has a long history of substance abuse."
Cooke said Bevins now had a good understanding of his mental health problems.
Bevins has past convictions for breaching supervision and community work sentences, which Cooke said suggested a risk Bevins wouldn't comply with home detention conditions.
"Mr Bevins has displayed a callous attitude towards his offending and appears to justify his actions on the basis of his history of sexual abuse and is adamant his actions were well-intentioned."
However, Cooke said it wasn't too late for Bevins to turn his life around and undergo counselling for past trauma and substance problems.
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