Guilt drives man to make confession, but girl unaware of incident

Wracked with guilt, a man confessed his sexual abuse of a young girl to police, despite knowing full well he could be taken to court.

The man, who will not name in order to protect the identity of the victim and her family, felt immediate regret about what he had done and sought counselling, before he unburdened himself further to officers last year. And to this day, the young girl he abused remains completely unaware about what happened to her.

The summary of facts explained that the defendant was socialising at a Taranaki address one night in September 2016 and had been drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis. Present at the address was the victim, who was under 12 at the time, and other adults.

The defendant stayed overnight and went to sleep in the lounge. When he got up to go to the bathroom, he saw the victim lying asleep on her bed.

The man went into her room, knelt down beside her bed and unzipped her pyjamas before he put his hand down her pants.

‘‘Realising what he did was wrong, the defendant quickly removed his hand, zipped her pyjamas back up and returned to the lounge,’’ the summary of facts said.

Throughout the assault, the victim remained asleep.

The girl has never been interviewed by police, but her parents were aware of the defendant’s disclosure of the abuse.

Following the incident, the man approached WellStop, a service which helps address sexually harmful behaviour, to get counselling.

‘‘During his treatment he decided the burden of knowing what he had done was too much and asked to speak to police,’’ the police summary said.

About 10 months after the indecent assault, the man made a full admission to police, in the knowledge it could lead to criminal charges. If he had not done that, nobody would have been the wiser about what happened.

‘‘Police had no prior knowledge of this offence and if the defendant had not made a statement there would have been no investigation or prosecution.’’

Since his confession, the man had remained in counselling and was supported by his family, the police summary noted.

After pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a girl under 12 at Thursday’s hearing in the New Plymouth District Court, he was convicted and a first strike warning issued.

Judge Chris Sygrove referred the case to Project Restore, which specialises in restorative justice meetings for people affected by sexual harm.

The defendant will be sentenced on July 16.

Due to the ‘‘deep remorse’’ the man had shown and the steps he had taken to address his issues, police noted in the summary of facts that it would not seek his registration as a child sex offender.