child sexual abuse<\/a> and the systematic production of child sexual abuse material. <\/p>\nHe was found out when he indecently assaulted his daughter\u2019s friend during a sleepover in July 2025.<\/p>\n
Cowden had arranged for the young girl to come to his house, the summary of facts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer mother trusted you to look after her daughter. She was vulnerable, aged 9 and defenceless,\u201d Judge Sellars said.<\/p>\n
The police summary of facts was so extreme that the defence argued it was an objectionable publication and sought to have it suppressed.<\/p>\n
Judge Sellars considered that the principle of open justice should prevail and included the summary in her decision.<\/p>\n
The offending against his daughter\u2019s friend, while in a spa pool, led to a police search of Cowden\u2019s home, during which an electronic device containing numerous videos and images was found. <\/p>\n
Judge Sellars said the material had been created over several years and primarily showed the \u201cprolonged sexual abuse\u201d of his daughter. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe facts reveal that you normalised sexually abusing her, and sexual play as such became a part of your relationship with her.\u201d <\/p>\n
The investigation also revealed that he covertly recorded several of his daughter\u2019s young friends while they were naked or getting changed at his home.<\/p>\n
Judge Sellars said this resulted in the objectionable publication charges and included other victims, one of whom could not be identified.<\/p>\n
In addition to the material Cowden created, police found 12 further folders on his device, containing more than 4000 videos and 8000 images, about half of which were classified as objectionable.<\/p>\n
Judge Sellars said 86 of the videos and 31 images were created by Cowden. <\/p>\n
Only seven images did not involve his daughter, and 16 videos involved his daughter with other children, filmed covertly.<\/p>\n
Judge Sellars said one of the videos was of an unidentified girl filmed without her knowledge at a swimming pool.<\/p>\n
High degree of planning<\/p>\n
Judge Sellars said an aggravating feature of Cowden\u2019s offending was the high degree of planning and premeditation, reflected in his setting up a camera or phone and filming his daughter. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was clearly extensive grooming. You instructed her what to do. As I said, you normalised sexual activity, and there was a concerning level of manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one of the videos, Cowden was seen reminding his daughter not to tell her mother. He also \u201crehearsed\u201d with her what to do if her brother came into the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn one of the videos, her brother did come in, and it appears after that that she hid. She was obviously well trained by you,\u201d Judge Sellars said.<\/p>\n
The scale of offending involved repeated humiliation, objectification and sexualisation of a very young child over an extended period.<\/p>\n
The judge considered the breach of trust a \u201csignificantly serious\u201d aggravating feature.<\/p>\n
She said the harm was not confined to his daughter, because there was an \u201cobviously profound effect\u201d on his son and the children\u2019s mother. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis has enormous impact that they will feel for the rest of their lives.\u201d <\/p>\n
From a sentencing starting point of 25 years and two months, Judge Sellars awarded discounts for Cowden\u2019s early guilty pleas, previous good character, remorse and prospects for rehabilitation to arrive at the 13-year sentence.<\/p>\n
She agreed with the Crown that, because of Cowden\u2019s \u201chighly manipulative behaviour\u201d, a protection order was necessary to safeguard the victim.<\/p>\n
*Pseudonym used in District Court decision. The offender\u2019s name is suppressed to protect victims. <\/p>\n
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n
Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They included rape, indecent acts on a child, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, five charges of knowingly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19838,1903,26673,74,95,2511,14032,2837,2209,99278,2082,1445,42,14641,43,51246,6289,57301,17703,15386,290689,544,427,1961,40,38,41,39,96,1455,1530,4741],"class_list":["post-590283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-19838","tag-abuse","tag-abusing","tag-after","tag-and","tag-child","tag-daughter","tag-during","tag-father","tag-filming","tag-for","tag-friends","tag-headlines","tag-jailed","tag-news","tag-raping","tag-readers","tag-references","tag-sexual","tag-sexually","tag-sleepovers","tag-some","tag-story","tag-this","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-upsetting","tag-warning","tag-years","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590283","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=590283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}