‘Manifestly inadequate’: Body piercer given more prison time after abusing young women

A NSW body piercer has had his prison term increased after a panel of top judges found he’d been given an “manifestly inadequate” sentence for abusing young women.

A narcissistic serial rapist. who used his body piercing business to prey young women in country NSW towns, will serve more time in prison after he was given a “manifestly inadequate” jail term, a top court has ruled.

James McKenzie, known as “Jimmy Jam Piercer Man”, sexually abused five young women at his two studios in Port Macquarie and Armidale between 2018 and 2019, court documents show.

McKenzie gave ice to his youngest victim and raped others after they inquired about piercings.

They were all aged 15 to 20-years-old.

McKenzie was expected to face trial but entered a late guilty plea and was given 10 years and six months prison in October 2021 in the NSW District Court.

(File image) The piercer drugged one young victim and raped others.

Crown prosecutors challenged the sentence, telling the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal that it was “plainly unjust”.

The Court of Appeal was told the sentence would likely undermine “public confidence in the proper administration of criminal justice in the sentencing of sex offenders”.

Four of the five young women McKenzie abused provided statements to the court outlining the devastating crimes and their ongoing impacts on their lives.

The details are too harrowing to include.

One girl was 17 when McKenzie had an affair with her and raped her when she tried to break up with him in his studio – he was in his mid-30s and married.

“I know Jimmy heard me tell him ‘no’ that night. He stopped when I said it, looked me in the eye, and then raped me anyway,” she told the court.

McKenzie introduced his youngest victim, aged just 15, to the drug ice before photographing her undressed and masked.

The girl feared McKenzie would leak the photographs, as he had done to another woman, if she did not have sex with him.

He paid the teenager with meth in exchange for more sex when she came asking for money a week later.

General view of the Supreme Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Doctors concluded McKenzie was an ice addict and a narcissist, the court documents show, but there was no link between any mental health and his crimes.

McKenzie was born in Australia but raised in the US and his American accent and his father told the court he befriended people younger than himself.

“(McKenzie’s father) described how the respondent’s American accent and appearance of being well-travelled meant that he was able to impress those younger people,” the court judgment reads.

The three appeal judges found there was no legal error made by the District Court judge but the number of victims and offences meant a different calculation should be used to sentence McKenzie.

The appeal court judges added two years to McKenzie‘s sentence meaning he will serve 12 years total and eight without parole.

He will be eligible for parole in 2027.