Gran tells rapist: You're a monster

Todd James Gibbons was jailed for 12 years yesterday in court.

A grandmother told a 45-year-old Northland man who admitted raping her granddaughter he was a "vile predator" before he was jailed for 12 years.

The granddaughter and her friend were victims of Todd James Gibbons when they were aged 7 and 12 years old and the offending began in 1999.

In the Whangarei District Court the grandmother said it was the first time she and other family members had come face-to-face with Gibbons who she described as "the evil monster that is you, a vile predator".

"Children must be protected from you," she said to Gibbons, as he sat with his head bowed in the dock.

The grandmother said it was through the courage of the two - who were now women - that justice had been achieved.

"They want him never to have the opportunity to abuse children again," she said.

Gibbons plead guilty to the charges after a sentence indication hearing before Judge John McDonald last month.

He admitted two charges of rape, 12 charges of unlawful sexual connection, a representative charge of attempted sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one charge of sexual conduct with a girl under 12.

The offending against the older girl happened in 1999 when Gibbons took her for a ride in his car at night. He bought a bottle of alcohol and both drank it before he stopped in a park where he raped her.

The girl wrote an account in her diary, which was later discovered by an adult.

The second victim was aged 7 when she was sexually abused over a 12-month period from 2006.

That included making her perform sexual acts on him while he watched pornography on television.

In 2014 she told her father what had been happening and Gibbons was interviewed by police about both girls and denied anything had occurred.

During sentencing Judge McDonald said the families had been deeply traumatised by the offending.

He was concerned about a pre-sentence report which showed on one hand Gibbons was remorseful, but on the other was trying to minimise his offending.

"Unless you do a sexual offender's course while in jail, you will remain a very serious risk to young girls. The parole board should think long and hard before releasing you if you have not done such a programme," Judge McDonald said.