Man jailed for historic sex offences

GEORGE William Millar hobbled to the dock yesterday a squat, weak, old man.

But more than 30 years earlier, the 86yearold had plagued a group of girls and preyed on their vulnerability.

Millar was set to go to trial before the Dunedin District Court but pleaded guilty beforehand, leading to yesterday’s sentencing.

Despite admitting three charges of indecency with a child under 12, one of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and another of attempted rape, the defendant recently claimed he had not committed the crimes.

He told a Probation officer he accepted offending against one victim but not to the extent she alleged.

The other three, Millar said, were lying.

Judge Michael Crosbie said the denials spoke volumes about the defendant.

‘‘There’s no remorse from you, none at all,’’ he said.

Two of the victims read statements to their abuser yesterday and Millar interrupted when a woman recalled the time he tried to rape her in the back of a car. ‘‘No way,’’ he interjected.

The offending took place over nearly seven years, during the 1980s, the court heard.

Millar would pull out the lolly jar and entice the girls to sit on his lap.

‘‘You wanted lollies but you knew he’d make you do something for it,’’ one victim said.

As Millar violated one girl as she sat with him, he told her ‘‘this is our secret’’.

The woman stood before the court yesterday and said her lack of attention at school and reliance on alcohol as a teen were squarely down to the trauma she experienced as a child.

‘‘Because of you, George, my

brain’s functioning and development was altered. Instead of learning and retaining new information, my brain was in survival mode, looking for danger,’’ she said.

‘‘I could never put into words the damage you caused because, George, you never gave me the opportunity to know my life any other way.’’

Now whenever she saw a man wearing shorts and long socks or eating with his mouth open, she was taken back to the harrowing events she experienced as a 6yearold.

Despite that, the victim said she refused to expend her emotions on Millar.

‘‘I don’t hate you and I’m not angry with you. I don’t care how you spend the remaining years of your life,’’ she said. ‘‘To me you’re nothing. I look at you and feel nothing.’’

Judge Crosbie noted there was a fifth victim — a girl Millar had abused during the same era who had come forward at the time.

He was jailed for a year but avoided punishment for the bulk of his sex abuse until yesterday.

Defence counsel Sarah SaundersonWarner said her client had been married for more than 60 years and had been on bail at the Dunedin home they shared.

However, the woman had refused permission for him to serve an electronicallymonitored sentence there.

Ms SaundersonWarner submitted Millar’s offending was not premeditated but Judge Crosbie disagreed.

‘‘You have cynically preyed on each of them when they were in about the same point in their development,’’ he said.

‘‘You took advantage of them at their most innocent and vulnerable.’’

He praised the victims for their eloquence and bravery, and hoped the end of the court case aided the healing process.

Millar was jailed for two years three months.

❛ There’s no remorse from you, none at all

Judge Michael Crosbie