Lawyer Quentin Haines stands in the dock at the Palmerston North District Court for sentencing on hiring underage prostitutes. Quentin Stobart Haines, 42, pleaded guilty in July to two counts of contracting a person under 18 for sexual services. In one of those cases, the victim was Haines contacted her through a "sugar daddy dating" website called Seeking Arrangements in August last year. The online adult forum requires users to be at least 18 years old.
The victim had a profile indicating she was The pair arranged to meet over text message, with the victim confirming she was over In truth, she was only Haines met the victim and a male associate of hers at the Wellington train station, and drove them to his home, where he and the victim engaged in sexual activity while the other man waited in the lounge.
The other man gave Haines the number of another underage sex worker, who Haines then contacted. Before their meeting, she had already told him over text she was only Haines refused to make any comment when questioned by police. Crown prosecutor Michael Blaschke said Haines' explanation ahead of sentencing that he didn't realise the legal age for prostitution was different to the legal age for sex "beggars belief".
He said there was an "absence of remorse". Judge Lance Rowe said the law preventing people under 18 from engaging in commercial sexual activity was there "to protect young people from sexual exploitation and at times protect them from themselves". In the case of the year-old victim, Haines "took insufficient care that the law requires Judge Rowe said it was difficult to distinguish when remorse came out of self pity or a desire to gain a lighter sentence, and when it was genuine, but he accepted Haines was remorseful and that his reparation offer was the best he could do.
A pre-sentence report assessed Haines as genuine, and said he expressed "disgust" in himself for the position he placed the victims in. Judge Rowe allowed him discounts on his sentence for his remorse, his efforts to rehabilitate, his contribution to the community, and his guilty pleas.
