Prison for man who filmed himself sexually abusing girl

A Nelson man who filmed himself sexually violating his partner’s 9-year-old daughter in bed has been sentenced to prison in what a judge has labelled ‘‘very, very serious offending’’.

The 31-year-old man was granted permanent name suppression in the Nelson District Court on Wednesday, when he was sentenced to two years and seven months’ imprisonment on a number of sex charges including unlawful sexual connection, indecent assault, making and possessing objectionable publications. The court heard how the man sexually violated and filmed the girl while his partner was away for a weekend last September.

The girl told her mother what happened when she returned home. The woman found a recording of the incident on the man’s phone which she copied and gave to police.

When police questioned the man the following week, he admitted the offending and that he took other recordings that night he’d since deleted. He admitted in the previous six months he had recorded the girl naked in the shower or in her bedroom.

He had also downloaded sexualised images of girls around the same age.

A victim impact statement from the girl said she had become wary of men and people, had lost part of her family, her father figure and her sense of security was gone.

‘‘She had to go through the trauma of a medical exam that she said was the worst day of her life.’’

A statement from the girl’s mother said she didn’t know how to trust men around her children.

She felt protective and worried for them, she had grief for her daughter and feelings of guilt.

The Crown submitted that prison was the only option, while the defence argued the man did not pose a risk to the community and a sentence of home detention with strict conditions would mitigate any residual physical risk.

Crown prosecutor Abigail Goodison said the victim had endured something ‘‘she absolutely should never have had to’’.

She said the man – who was effectively the victim’s stepfather – was in a position of trust and had breached it in a ‘‘very gross way’’.

Defence lawyer Michael Vesty said the offending was not premeditated as the man had not created an opportunity for his partner to be out of the house, but he had taken advantage of the situation. Vesty said the man had taken immediate responsibility for his actions, realised an addiction to pornography was the underlying reason for his behaviour and it ‘‘dulled his senses’’ to the impact of his actions on others.

He said he was a man of good character which had been demonstrated some years ago when he had helped to save the lives of others in a tragic event.

He had no prior convictions, had been meaningfully employed for his adult life and had the pro-social support of his family.

He had also taken part in restorative justice, Project Restore, and engaged with a psychotherapist. In sentencing, Judge

Tony Zohrab said it was his view that there was degree of premeditation in the offending.

‘‘Through your use of pornography you had objectified her . . . so there was a certain inevitability about what happened. You were no longer seeing her as your stepchild, you were seeing her as some sort of sexual object there for your own perverse sexual pleasure.’’

The man received a discount for his personal circumstances, remorse, co-operation with police and early guilty plea. Judge Zohrab said the facts of the case amounted to ‘‘very, very serious offending’’ by someone the victim should have been able to trust.