A Northland man who sexually abused his two granddaughters for more than six years was somebody people looked up to, but a judge has described him as a paedophile predator who has caused lifelong harm to the girls.
The man, who has name suppression to protect the identity of his victims, was jailed for six years and seven months in the Whangārei District Court today after earlier pleading guilty to four charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one charge of sexual offending against a young person. All the charges were representative, meaning the conducts happened on a number of occasions.
Sentencing, Judge John McDonald said the two girls were abused from the ages of five or six to when they were 12 or 13, and the abuse would have a lifelong impact on them.
In an emotional victim impact statement from one of the man's granddaughters and her grandmother - his wife - read by the wife, she described the ongoing pain her husband's actions have had on the whole family, but particularly the two girls.
She said the whole family looked up to the man and relied on him to protect them from harm.