More jail time for child sex attack confessions

Photo / Herald on Sunday

None of the victims of Robert Henry Nepia's sex attacks long ago opted to write victim impact statements for his latest sentencing.

Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill said he could understand why that was, after Nepia's confessions to sex offences against children dating back almost 30 years.

The 45-year-old inmate confessed in Christchurch Men's Prison while he was doing the Kia Marama programme for convicted sex offenders.

He is already serving an eight-and-a-half year jail term imposed in the High Court in Auckland on July 23, 2004, after he admitted 19 sex charges involving children as young as five years. That offending extended from 1979 to 1990.

Some of the victims wanted nothing to do with the case and just wanted to get on with their lives and that pattern appears to have been repeated with the Christchurch sentencing that took place in the Rangiora Court House.

The further offences he has now admitted took place from 1982 to 1997 and involved small girls and boys as young as five, when Nepia was aged from 17 to 31. None of the victims were related to Nepia. Some of the offending took place during games of hide and seek.

The crown was granted leave to alter two of the nine charges Nepia had admitted before the sentencing began, changing them from sexual violation to indecent assault. He was sentenced for four indecent assaults on boys under 12, one on a girl under 12, three charges of unlawful sexual connection with girls aged between 12 and 16, and one charge of unlawful detention.

Crown prosecutor Kathy Basire said Nepia was still assessed as a high risk of reoffending, but the crown had stepped back from seeking an order for an indefinite preventive detention sentence. Instead, it believed the risks could be addressed with an extended supervision order when he was released.

Defence counsel Michael Starling said Nepia had confessed after legal advice and knowing that he was likely to receive an additional jail sentence. He had effectively waived parole at his last appearance before the Parole Board because of the newly disclosed offending. He was now working on a structured release plan and safety plan, and it was virtually certain there would be an extended supervision order.

Judge Gary MacAskill said the confessions showed the effectiveness of the Kia Marama programme. Nepia made them after he had successfully completed the treatment phase of the programme.

The courts had to encourage people to make such unprompted confessions. They were in the public interest and they gave some solace to the victims. It was best that they were dealt with openly, in the interests of the offender and the victims.

Making allowance for Nepia's confessions and guilty pleas, Judge MacAskill added a further one year nine months to the jail term Nepia is already serving.

The location of the offending was suppressed.

- NZPA