Child rapist who caused ‘generational trauma’ sentenced to 10 years, five months in prison

A Porirua man has been jailed for 10 years and five months for sexually abusing children, including his biological daughter, between 1990 and 2019.

The man, whose name was suppressed along with that of his victim, started the crime in the early 1990s when his daughter would spend weekends with him.

At Wellington Magistrates Court today, Judge Peter Hobbs heard victim impact statements from the man’s six victims – five of whom were children at the time.

Justice Hobbs said it was clear from their statements that the harm the man caused was enormous and traumatised for a generation within the family and the wider community.

His victims included his daughter, niece, stepdaughter and neighbors.

The court heard he molested his daughter every weekend while she was with him when she was between three and 11 years old.

The crimes included rubbing her naked body with his and rubbing her naked body with his hands, claiming he liked skin-to-skin contact.

This escalated to rape when the girl was 7 years old.

One of his victims was 7 when the man started exposing himself to her on a regular basis. She lives across from him and he starts breaking into her bedroom, stealing her clothes and leaving her horrific messages.

“The ongoing nature of the crime created an environment of fear and confusion for her as a child,” the summary of facts said.

The first is when the guy exposes and touches himself in the girl’s sight, usually while she’s walking to school.

“The victim knew the behaviour was directed at her as the accused would ensure eye contact and smile at her.”

At one point, she saw him standing naked in the garage, except for a “black rubbery tubular device” wrapped around his waist and penis.

“He looked straight at her and then turned his hips to make his cock wiggle.”

Over time, his behavior “evolved again and took on a more sinister side,” it concluded.

One day, when she was walking to school, she saw him standing behind the screen door of his house, looking at her with one of her T-shirts wrapped tightly around his chest. He was not wearing other clothes.

“This pattern of behavior and non-disclosure by the victim is now very mature and the victim just avoided her sight and continued her business.”

About a week later, she walked into her room and found the shirt on her bed, showing off style.

He repeated it again, this time stealing a bra and a pair of underwear from the girl’s drawer and placing them on her bed again.

His offenses to the girl included knocking on her bedroom window with a bare cock, leaving pornography on her bed, and sneaking in to leave her notes on torn pieces of paper from her diary.

One night, as she went to bed, she noticed a sentence written in ink on the wooden slats of her bed to the effect of “If you have a boyfriend, I’ll be mad.”

During her freshman year of college, incidents involving him occurred weekly, and by her sophomore year, that diminished, she said.

He had a total of six victims, the youngest only 3-5 years old at the time of the crime. One victim was an adult.

He would play a game called “hidden scruchy” with some of his victims, usually ending with him hiding the scrunchy on his penis

He also played the game with his daughter.

His offense to his victims escalated into rape, molestation and forcing them to commit lewd acts against him.

One of his victims finally sought help after taking part in a school program that taught students how to keep themselves safe.

His adult victim was in his home when she found him filming her in the shower.

A search of his laptop revealed some objectionable images containing child exploitation material.

Justice Hobbs told the court the “absolute scale” of the man’s crime was an aggravating circumstance, as was a serious breach of trust.

“Five of your victims are children, there is a significant age difference between you and your victims, and because of the nature of your relationship, there is a serious breach of trust.”

A cultural, drug, alcohol and psychiatry report did not show any link between rough upbringing with an abusive father and the man’s criminal behaviour.

He will be automatically added to the child sex offenders register and his parole will be determined by the board.