There were grooming aspects to the case.
Judge Adeane decided against an offer of $12,000 reparation, offered by the defendant through counsel Russell Fairbrother. Crown prosecutor Steve Manning recommended that the money should go to the man's main victim.
The man faced 13 charges, some of which were admitted just after the Crown's opening address at a trial, as the main victim was waiting in another room to give evidence.
Most of the 13 charges were representative of repeated offending against two of the victims. Offending against the main victim began when the man was about 71.
They involved having unlawful sexual connection, and indecent acts and indecent assaults, variously involving digital penetration, sex acts and other abuse. The one charge relating to the third victim involved an act of kissing.
Mr Fairbrother was not surprised by the sentence. But he was surprised that his client's reparation proposal was rejected.