The Napier District Court was told on Thursday that Quinney still denied that he committed the offences after facing two charges of doing an indecent act with a boy under 12.

However, a jury found earlier that Quinney did offend against the boy during a birthday trip in December 2021.

“The jury did not accept your version of events was … reasonably plausible,” Judge Bridget Mackintosh told him.

Judge Mackintosh said Quinney had no criminal record, financially supported his parents and had been a generous donor to charity.

She told Quinney that it was difficult to see where the offending had come from, because in many respects he had been “doing the right thing”.

However, she said on the trip to Cape Kidnappers that Quinney had taken the boy, who was not related to him, to a secluded spot. He asked him to remove his togs and photographed him.

He told the boy that he needed to practise taking photos.

He later took the boy and another child that was with them to a motel, where age-appropriate activities were set up for them, including video games.

However, Quinney insisted they sleep in the same bed, where indecent touching took place.

Judge Mackintosh said the offending had “taken its toll” on the boy’s family and a victim impact statement from his mother said the boy is now anxious and withdrawn, and demonstrating a lack of trust in men.

He is receiving counselling and therapy and the “ripple effect” of the offending is affecting others in the family.

Judge Mackintosh sentenced Quinney to 10 months of home detention, 80 hours of community work and ordered that he pay $5000 to the boy in reparation for emotional harm.

She suggested the money might be used for continuing counselling.

The judge also imposed six months of conditions after the home detention finishes, including having no unsupervised contact with people under the age of 16.

Judge Mackintosh declined to add Quinney’s name to the child sex offender register, saying he would be intensely monitored during his home detention and post-detention conditions.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.