Auckland man Anthony Katterns jailed for filming girls in shower

Anthony Katterns has been jailed for more than two years after he indecently assaulted a 10-year-old girl and filmed her 5-year-old twin sisters in the shower. Photo / Supplied

An Auckland man who indecently assaulted a 10-year-old girl and filmed her 5-year-old twin sisters in the shower has been sent to prison for more than two years.

Anthony Katterns, 42, of Otara admitted touching one of the young girls, who were known to him, inappropriately while she was on his lap and he was in his underwear and setting up cameras in a bathroom to film her younger sisters showering.

In a victim impact statement read by her mother at sentencing at the Manukau District Court today, the girl who he touched inappropriately said he told her not to tell her mother about what happened.

Over a decade, Katterns continued to inappropriately touch the girl and she said this made her withdrawn, anxious and depressed.

She told the court she missed assessments, withdrew from school and was scared to tell her mother about what was happening.

"I would feel weak and powerless."

Katterns also made 22 videos of the girl's younger twin sisters and when police seized his computer, they found 10,000 other objectionable images.

In April, he pleaded guilty to three charges relating to the inappropriate sexual behaviour, two charges of making an objectionable publication and one charge of possession of 10,000 objectionable images.

At sentencing today, Judge David McNaughton said he took into account Katterns' remorse for the offending and that he was unlikely to offend again.

He read a psychologists' report in which Katterns said he felt disgust at his actions and relief that the offending had been discovered and that he was responding well to therapy.

However, a mitigating factor was that the offending took place over so many years.

McNaughton sentenced Katterns to two years and three months in prison concurrently.