"There is no evidence suggesting he was aroused or he got any sexual gratification from it," he said.
Mr Blaikie said it would be wrong to sentence Harris to a term greater than any of the maximum terms for the crimes.
Mr Blaikie said this was a very unusual and complex case and in his 42 years as a lawyer he had never seen a case like it.
He said after two years he was still struggling to understand why Harris committed the offences and Harris himself had no real explanation.
But, Mr Blaikie said, Harris had a difficult childhood and was looked after by his brother, who was four years older than him. He said Harris would often cuddle up to his brother for comfort.
He said Harris had difficulty communicating feelings of intimacy with people and had never had an adult relationship and had formed a close, platonic bond with the victims and he wanted a record of them because he knew he would never see them again.
Mr Blaikie said the indecent assaults were at the low end of the scale and there was no touching of their genitalia or penetration of the victims or gross indecencies.
He said other than this 'character flaw' Harris was a high functioning adult.
Crown lawyer Bernadette O'Connor suggested a starting point of 9 to 12 years to take into account the totality of the offending, which was a gross abuse of trust.
Ms O'Connor said many of the victims were young people here on holiday from overseas.
Many had little poor English, were vulnerable so far away from home and Harris lulled them into feeling secure before drugging and indecently assaulting them.
She said the offending took place between 2005 and 2014 and there was a huge level of pre-meditation and planning. He chose his victims and invited them to stay in his home at the lodge in exchange for carrying out work for him. He then spiked their drinks with the sedative Temazepam.
"His prescription for Temazepam more than tripled after taking over the backpackers," she said.
She said the offending has had serious impacts on some of the victims, with one of their mothers commenting that she entrusted Harris to look after her most precious thing, her son, and he abused that trust.
Justice John Fogarty said the offending was serious, and included trespassing against the people and their privacy and the sentence had to be significant to reflect that.
''The sheer volume of this offending; 19 victims and 42 offences, conducted in secret, largely exacerbated by the fact he stupefied his victims with a drug is serious culpability.''
The judge said if the offending was not for sexual gratification then what was it for?
He fixed a starting point for sentencing of 9 years imprisonment then gave a 12 month discount for Harris' guilty pleas and genuine remorse.
Justice Fogerty also gave Harris leave to apply for his sentence to be varied pending the outcome of a Crown application for the forfeiture of the lodge and his other property in Kaitaia, if that leads to reparation being paid to the victims.
The police summary of facts paints a picture of Harris regularly drugging visitors at the backpackers, rendering them unconscious. He would then photograph them, and get into bed and "spoon" or cuddle them from behind.
