A murderer has been sentenced to further prison time after years of historical sexual abuse was exposed.
The defendant, who was granted final name suppression, was sentenced in the Invercargill District Court last week to more than four years’ imprisonment.
He is already serving a life sentence for murder.
Following a judge-alone trial last year, he was found guilty of six charges of doing an indecent act, three charges of sexual violation and charges of inducing an indecent act and rape.
The court heard he offended against his two half-sisters between 1984 and 1990.
One victim, who was more than eight years younger than the defendant, said she felt like it became “a normality”.
“She didn’t realise it wasn’t normal until she realised violence wasn’t normal,” the victim impact statement said.
She said she struggled with her mental health and the trial process was a “torturous endeavour”.
Another victim said the offending still affected her today.
“My childhood was stolen, my inner child was ripped away from me and it was like my spark was gone,” she said.
“I didn’t choose this to happen to me ... you had no right to prey on little, innocent children and put terror into them at such a young age.”
She said she reported the abuse years later in the hope of getting some closure and healing.
“What happens in the dark always comes to the light,” she said.
“This weighs heavily on my spirit.”
At trial, the victim said she was violated multiple times each month.
Judge Duncan Harvey accepted the offending was frequent.
When giving his decision last year, he acknowledged some victims never reported abuse to police.
“A complainant may love the abuser, but not the abuse.”
At sentencing, Judge Harvey explained the maximum penalties for sexual violation were lower at the time of the offending, and he had to impose a penalty according to the law as it applied in the 1980s.
He said the abuse was aggravated by the breach of trust, how often it occurred and that the attacks were premeditated.
The judge sentenced the defendant to four years and five months’ in prison.
The defendant’s next parole hearing is scheduled for April.
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