Former Christchurch police officer Gordon Stanley Meyer has avoided a jail sentence. The disgraced cop was instead sentenced to nine months of home detention. He previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges, which include bribery, corruption, and indecent assault.

Meyer, dubbed as the Christchurch corrupt cop by the media, was in the High Court on Thursday to receive his sentence. Justice Graham Panckhurst sentenced him to home detention and to pay each of his two victims $3000 for emotional harm.

The 45-year-old former senior constable, who had served in the force for 19 years, admitted to grabbing the breasts of an 18-year-old girl and putting her hands on his groin inside his patrol car in April 2011. He also accepted bribe in the form of oral sex from a 23-year-old woman in return for letting her off the hook of a drink driving charge.

Explaining the sentence, Justice Panckhurst said that the “public vilification and humiliation” that Meyer had gone through were taken into consideration. The corruption charge was also considered to be his “lead offence.”

“By the time your pleas had been entered, name suppression lifted, and you resigned from the force, you’d lost your career, your livelihood, and your reputation,” the judge said.

Meyer was handed a first-strike warning for his indecent assault charge, which is under the three strike rule for repeat violent offenders.

Originally, Meyer was originally facing 18 charges, but nine of those were dropped during the pre-trial argument, while another seven were withdrawn before he entered his plea.

One of his victims, who has name suppression, is “disgusted” over Meyer’s apparently lenient sentence, saying they spent far longer time dealing with the case than the time Meyer would spend inside home detention.

“I just think he got off really lightly. He managed to go two years while they organised the trial and then pleaded guilty. He milked it,” she was quoted by stuff.co.nz, adding, “He [Meyer] may as well have been let away with it.”

Meyer formally resigned from his job in November, but was stood down in October 2011 when the first complaint was made. He continued to receive his salary of $150,000 during the two years that he was being investigated.