A Rotorua farm manager has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for years of sexual offending against two girls.
Michael O'Driscoll, 55, was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court yesterday by Judge James Weir for a range of sexual assault charges.
Name suppression for O'Driscoll expired after his victims requested his name be made public.
Throughout the sentencing Judge Weir referred to O'Driscoll's victims as Victim A and Victim B. O'Driscoll was found guilty by a jury of five counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, one count of inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent act, one of doing an indecent act on a girl under 12, one of doing an indecent act on a young person and one charge of indecent assault on a girl under 12.
O'Driscoll had previously pleaded guilty to meeting a young person following grooming and unlawful sexual connection with a girl under 16.
The offending for Victim A happened between January 2005 and July 2011, when the girl was aged between 6 and 12 and the offending for Victim B happened between March 2011 and July 2011.
Judge Weir said Victim A was subjected to years of sexual acts which, as a 6-year-old, she thought were games. O'Driscoll also would put on adult TV channels and make the girl act out what was on the TV. He said O'Driscoll often found opportunities to be with the girl and showered her with gifts to maintain her attention and silence. "When she attempted to tell on you you acted aggressively against her."
Judge Weir said Victim B was being sexually groomed by O'Driscoll and when her parents found out, both the parents and police tried to stop contact between the girl and O'Driscoll.
The pair had continued to make contact and O'Driscoll sent the teenager sexually explicit text messages. The teenager often stayed at O'Driscoll's house and on one occasion the duo spent two nights at a hotel in Auckland. Judge Weir said they found places to meet and O'Driscoll bought her an erotic outfit. He said he had no doubt O'Driscoll and the teenager had sex on several occasions.
Judge Weir said both victims were vulnerable and O'Driscoll's offending had had, and would continue to have, a huge impact on their lives.
Both victims now had difficulty trusting people and several of the victim impact statements made "harrowing reading".
Judge Weir said O'Driscoll had shown no remorse. According to a pre-sentence report O'Driscoll denied the charges, saying the victims' families, the court and police were conspiring against him. Those were comments Judge Weir found "bizarre and perverse".
"You simply don't get it."
He said O'Driscoll had a dark and hidden side to his personality. He sentenced O'Driscoll to 15 years in prison with a minimum period of imprisonment of seven-and-a-half years.