Christchurch father of 11 David Bagley loses Court of Appeal bid for early prison release

8:35 pm on 7 January 2025

By By Ric Stevens, Open Justice reporter of

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Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

David Rata Bagley, with 163 convictions, failed to secure early release from jail.
The Court of Appeal declined his bid, citing no undue impact on his 11 children.
Bagley has been turned down for parole twice, but must be released in September.

This article describes family violence which may be upsetting for some readers.

A man with 163 convictions has lost a bid to be released from jail early because of the effect his imprisonment is having on his 11 children.

David Rata Bagley, 43, has a 25-year criminal history of shoplifting and dishonesty, although he also has a conviction for family violence due to an incident in which he pulled the children's mother off her feet by her hair and kicked her in the head.

In February 2024, the Christchurch man was sent to prison for two years and four months for wilful damage, threatening to kill, assault on a person in a family relationship and 11 charges of theft.

That sentence was later reduced to two years and two months on appeal by the High Court, which considered that his treatment in state care as a child had "causatively contributed" to his offending.

But Bagley then tried to get a further discount on his jail term, to reflect what he said was the negative impact of his imprisonment on his 11 children, aged between 18 months and 17 years.

The High Court turned him down on that score, but he took his case to the Court of Appeal.

He was trying to get his sentence reduced to two years, which would lead to his immediate release as people serving two years or less are usually freed after serving half of the sentence and Bagley has been in jail for more than a year, including time on remand.

The Court of Appeal also declined his appeal, meaning he will remain subject to release by the decision of the Parole Board or when he has served his time.

The Parole Board has seen him twice so far, in April and September 2024, and declined to release him both times.

He will next be seen by the board in May. His statutory release date is in September.

Bagley's latest incident of offending was in June 2023, when he was living apart from the mother of his children and sleeping rough in Hagley Park, Christchurch.

He called his partner and asked her to pick him up, then yelled abuse at her when he got in the car. She told him to get out.

Later, he went into her home, trashed multiple rooms, and ripped the landline phone out of the wall and put the handset down the toilet.

When his partner returned home, Bagley threatened to stab her and pulled her off her feet by grabbing her ponytail while some of the children yelled at him to stop.

Bagley let go of her and she took a step away from him. He kicked her once in the right side of the body and once more to the side of the head after she fell to the ground.

The woman had swelling and bruising to the sides of her face and the top of her head, and abrasions on her forehead.

In a victim impact statement, she told the District Court Bagley had violated her trust. She would not stand for him assaulting her and called the police.

The theft convictions related to shoplifting in Christchurch on 12 separate occasions between February and July 2023.

Court documents note differing views on Bagley's role as a father.

His partner said in her victim impact statement, signed by a police officer on her behalf, that he did not help with the children, did not have a job and "[contributes] nothing to the family".

However, in a letter to the judge, she said Bagley was a "good partner and a dad to all his children" and his time in custody had taken a "huge toll" on her as a mother caring for such a large family.

Bagley had also been moved from Christchurch Men's Prison to the Otago Corrections Facility, meaning the children were unable to visit him.

However, the Court of Appeal justices said there was nothing before them to suggest the children were visiting Bagley regularly while he was in custody in Christchurch.

There was also nothing to suggest Bagley's incarceration was having an "undue impact" on the children, and they noted the violence he meted out was witnessed by some of them.

There had also been some reluctance on Bagley's part to engage in rehabilitation programmes which might strengthen his parental role.

"Standing back, we see this case as falling well below the high threshold which would justify this court conducting a further review of Bagley's sentence," the Court of Appeal decision said.

- This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.