A Northland man who has admitted nearly 80 violence and sex charges against women and children over four decades would be a candidate for the death penalty if it was available, says a sentencing advocate.
Liberty Charles Baker, of Moerewa, is behind bars while he waits to be sentenced in the High Court at Whangarei on August 12 - just four days after his 63rd birthday.
The charges he has admitted include sexual violation by rape, sexual conduct with a child under 12, sexual conduct with a young person under 16, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, cruelty to a child, assault with a weapon, male assaults female, assaulting a child, kidnapping, threatening to kill, grievous bodily harm, and injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Many of the charges are representative which means multiple offences of the same type are alleged to have happened in similar circumstances over a long period, making it difficult for the victim to say exactly what dates.
The police summary of facts which details the offending has been suppressed until after Baker is sentenced, but Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said the volume of sexual offending was the worst he had heard of.
"If we had the death penalty he would be a candidate," Mr McVicar said of Baker.
"He needs to be locked away and punished. He should never be freed. We owe the victims that so they have an opportunity to heal, or at least try."
Mr McVicar said the judge had a range of tools available to make sure society was safe from Baker for the foreseeable future and ensure the sentence he handed out acted as a real deterrent to others who thought they could commit such heinous crimes.
Crime statistics for 2014 showed there were 232 cases of sexual assaults and related offences, which was up from 180 cases in 2013 and 210 in 2012.
Last November a Northland court sat in shocked silence as three adult children spoke of the effect on their lives of rape and other abuse their father dished out to them while they were growing up. Dick Whakaaropai Rihari, 70, was sentenced to six years, nine months' jail for 15 historical crimes of rape, sexual assault and grievous bodily harm meted out to a daughter, son and stepdaughter.
Last October a Mid-North man was sent to jail for nine and a half years for sex offences involving girls aged 4 to 14 years. Christopher James Apiata, 21, was sentenced on 25 charges - three of rape, 13 of sexual violation and nine of indecent assault - relating to 10 victims and spanning almost 10 years.
And in August 2013 James Parker, former deputy principal of Pamapuria School near Kaitaia, was handed a sentence of preventive detention with a minimum seven years' imprisonment by Justice Paul Heath in the High Court at Whangarei.
Parker admitted 74 sex charges relating to sleepovers with boys at his Awanui farm between 1999 and 2012. Many of the charges are representative and relate to more than one incident. The court was told he was responsible for over 300 acts against his 20 victims.