A man convicted of the serial rape of his young daughter was yesterday handed the longest prison sentence ever imposed in a Hawke's Bay court for anything other than murder.
The man was also recently involved himself in a class-action over physical and sexual abuse on him while in state care.
Appearing before Judge Geoff Rea in Napier District Court, the man, aged in his late 50s, was sentenced to 16 years in jail for numerous rapes on the girl while she was aged between six and 15, when she spoke out about the abuse.
It exceeded, by six months, the sentence imposed on another man in the High Court in Napier last September for raping his daughter on multiple occasions.
Through tears, the victim in the latest case read her victim impact statement to the court and she said she knew what her father did was wrong and that he should be punished. She also said that she was glad that she and her fellow siblings are now safe and that she is in a "much better place" as she tries to put the abuse behind her.