A girl was 6 when her stepdad began indecently assaulting her.
Warning: This story deals with details of the sexual abuse of a child and may be distressing.
A schoolgirl who was abused by her stepfather “hundreds of times” over nine years was left “perpetually confused and scared” and still suffers from the ongoing impact of his actions.
“You took advantage of my innocence as a young girl, and preyed on me from a young age, to the point that I was confused about what was happening to me,” the victim said in a statement read out in court.
“Sleepless nights became the norm as I battled fear that you would enter my room again and would take advantage of me, and prevented me from finding safety even in the confines of my own home.”
Her 39-year-old stepfather was today sent to prison for four years and two months after being sentenced in the Tauranga District Court.
Crown prosecutor Hannah Speight read the victim’s impact statement, which discussed the post-traumatic stress disorder and ongoing mental health challenges the now-adult victim continues to face.
The abuse had played a “pivotal role” in breaking apart the girl’s family.
“The guilt I carry for coming forward with the truth weighs heavily on me as it has contributed to the fragmentation of relationships that are really important to me.”
She said she had only fully understood her stepdad’s actions once she reached adulthood.
According to court documents, the abuse started when the girl was around 6 years old, escalating from the use of sex toys to perform indecent acts through to sexual violations involving oral sex by the age of 11.
He would sometimes offend against her while her younger brother was asleep in the same room.
From the outset of the offending, the man attempted to keep the girl from disclosing the abuse.
When she was very young, he would offer her lollipops after the indecent acts, and then ask her not to tell anyone what had happened.
As she got older, he would instead give her money and currency for online gaming.
He would text her and ask her to wear shorts to bed, offering more money and currency for online gaming. He would take advantage of that clothing to offend against her the next morning.
There was a period in the nine-year abuse where he would use a sex toy to perform an indecent act “most mornings for approximately one year”.
The abuse stopped when she went to live with her biological father.
The stepfather faced one charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, four charges of an indecent act on child under 12, and one charge of an indecent act on a young person.
His lawyer Bill Nabney asked for a starting point of six to seven years’ imprisonment.
He said this reflected what was for the most part “low-level” indecent acts, other than the one instance of a sexual violation.
“The scale, especially the indecent assault offending, is significant, but the actual nature of it is lower level for offending of this type, in my submission.”
He also asked for discounts for the man’s background and substance abuse issues, which had contributed to his actions, for his early guilty plea, and remorse.
“He is truly sorry and remorseful, it’s not just an act on his part, he certainly deeply regrets what he did to his stepdaughter,” Nabney said.
The Crown agreed with the available discounts for background and guilty plea, but sought a slightly higher starting point of seven to eight years’ imprisonment.
Judge Melinda Mason pointed to the breach of trust, premeditation, victim vulnerability, harm caused, and scale of the offending as aggravating factors.
The girl had been entitled to look to her stepfather for “love and protection” not sexual gratification.
“She’s also suffered a family relationship breakdown because of your ongoing relationship with her mother, and she finds it difficult to deal with that,” Judge Mason said.
“The impact of your offending is ongoing and is not going to stop with this sentencing, and that needs to be acknowledged.”
The judge referred to the man’s guilty plea as preventing the victim from having to endure a trial, and also noted the man’s background, where he’d also been the victim of abuse.
The judge accepted the man’s remorse was genuine, but had to be viewed in the context of the lengthy period of offending against the girl.
“But I accept with the counselling [the man was getting] and with your refreshed understanding of the impact your offending has had on the victim, that you are genuinely remorseful.”
Judge Mason set the start point at seven years' imprisonment and gave the man a 25% discount for guilty plea and a 15% discount for personal factors and remorse.
He was sentenced to four years' and two months' imprisonment, and will be automatically added to the Child Sex Offender Register.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
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