Allan Titford recieves highest sentence seen in region

Allan Titford will spend 24 years behind bars for perpetrating a ``reign of terror'' on his family for more than two decades.

An anti-violence campaign helped a Northland mother and her children escape 22 years of slavery, abuse and beatings at the hands of the family patriarch.

Susan Cochrane, who was repeatedly raped, and her seven children breathed a sigh of relief after her husband, Allan Titford, was yesterday sentenced to 24 years in jail, with no minimum non-parole period - the highest sentence ever handed down by Northland courts - having earlier been found guilty by a jury of a host of charges.

They included 14 charges of assault with a weapon, seven of assault, four of male assaults female, three of assault on a child, three of sexual violation, two of arson, and single charges of using a document with intention to defraud, threatening to kill, assault using a weapon, perjury, attempting to pervert the course of justice and discharging a firearm.

The offences occurred between mid-1987 and July 2009 but Titford, a failed Far North mayoral candidate in the last election, still maintains his innocence and refuses to accept the jury's verdict.

In an unusual step, Ms Cochrane and three of her seven children, Alyssa, James and Elanda, waived their right to privacy and read out victim impact statements in court so Titford could be named.

Ms Cochrane said Titford kept her as a prisoner and robbed her children of their childhood, repeatedly beating them with a belt, shovel, hammer, fists and a plastic pipe.

Judge Duncan Harvey said Titford's "reign of terror" started at Mangonui Bluff when he raped Ms Cochrane a few months after they got married.

"You blamed your wife, children, police and the Government for conspiring the charges against you. You ruled your family by fear and destroyed any chance of happiness."

Since escaping the violence four years ago, her family had moved each year, struggling on a benefit and begging for food from welfare agencies such as the Salvation Army.

Ms Cochrane said had it not been for the "Violence: It's Not OK" campaign by Women's Refuge, police, the district health board and other Northland social agencies, they would have continued to suffer the abuse.

"It's Not OK" Whangarei spokeswoman Liz Inch was pleased that the campaign had made such a difference as its purpose was to get people who have been living with domestic violence to speak out.

"It will encourage other women, children and men if they are being abused, to seek help," Ms Inch said.

Judge Harvey said it was only right that the country also learnt that Titford's accusation against Maori over land claims, for which he received widespread sympathy, were "baseless".

Titford torched his home and caused other damage to his farm at Mangonui Bluff during a dispute with the Government and blamed it on local iwi, Te Roroa.

Alex Nathan, a Te Roroa kaumatua, said the hapu had not yet met to discuss the news, but he was pleased the truth had finally come out. "It has vindicated us," Mr Nathan said.