The first victim said her disgust at his actions quickly grew into a warped understanding of herself.<\/p>\n
She had a great sense of shame, felt broken and tainted, experienced self-harm and had attempted suicide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost my whole youth; I was abandoned by our family and community when I spoke out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was unable to feel safe, had nightmares, lost academic performances, and had intimacy struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n
She now has post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cA whole young girl\u2019s life was altered; I want my life back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Jane Farish jailed the man for six years and granted him name suppression on charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and indecent assault.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old was found guilty after a jury trial earlier this year. <\/p>\n
The second victim said she missed a lot of school after reporting the abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have flashbacks and nightmares; my grades suffered, when I first reported it, I was really shy; I was horrified about what he did to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to keep it a secret for years; I feared going to family gatherings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has taken my childhood away, I lived in fear of him hurting or touching me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third victim said the impact of his actions was long lasting. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have had to miss work because I can\u2019t cope, I have lived in anger and shame.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe presented as a decent person, the impacts are lifelong, the harm extends beyond what can be seen. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has made daily life difficult; it has changed the way I see myself and relate to others. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe did not make a mistake or rash decision; these crimes were committed over many years on multiple victims.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Crown said each act was opportunistic, there was a breach of trust, and it opposed name suppression, adding that the victims didn\u2019t want it. <\/p>\n
Judge Farish said it was very difficult for the man, as he had to live with what he had done, while his family would likely suffer hardship if he was named. <\/p>\n
His lawyer Joshua Lucas said it was a sad case for everybody.<\/p>\n
Lucas said he had known the man and his family for several years, and they had been very stressed by what had happened. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis victims have been grievously affected. It has kept me up at night. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I have read in the affidavits is distressing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucas said the man\u2019s family would suffer if he was named. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very small community; his family will have to bear the brunt of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Farish said the jury had convicted him of digitally penetrating and committing indecent acts in relation to two of the victims.<\/p>\n
He had been convicted of committing an indecent act in relation to the third victim, she said. <\/p>\n
Judge Farish said their impact statements painted a picture of incredible shame and the burden of having to keep secrets.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour offending has had a significant impact on those young women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a considerable breach of trust; you had close associations with their families; you were a trusted person and that allowed you to offend. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe children were incredibly vulnerable. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour offending spanned a number of years; they were very young.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Farish said the shame of his offending would flow on to his family. <\/p>\n
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first victim said her disgust at his actions quickly grew into a warped understanding of herself. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,1903,806,2511,4487,44264,2082,14641,21817,5158,111,43,139,69,28703,7680,17703,427,1961,1908,8844,1455],"class_list":["post-530060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-abuse","tag-as","tag-child","tag-christchurch","tag-detail","tag-for","tag-jailed","tag-lifelong","tag-man","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offending","tag-sex","tag-sexual","tag-story","tag-this","tag-trauma","tag-victims","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}