The man offended whenever the opportunity arose - not just once or twice, but hundreds of times, the judge said.
The girls were extremely vulnerable due to their young ages, which ranged from four - 11 years - and because they had been living with or staying with the man when the offending happened.
The more than 50 years age disparity between the man and the victims was also a factor along with the extreme harm caused, and the scale of the offending – it went on for years.
There was an absolute breach of trust. Instead of modelling life skills to help them safely navigate their way through the world, the man instead preyed on them, Judge McDonald said.
The face the man showed his whanau was one they trusted as their leader, for guidance and advice. But all the while, he was sexually abusing his young granddaughters.
The man had completely destroyed his family with these "horrific" crimes, the judge said.
The issue for this final phase of sentencing was whether there should be any discounts in addition to the full 25 per cent for his guilty pleas – a discount Judge McDonald stressed was not for the man's admissions but because it had spared the children from giving evidence.
If the man had defended these charges, each of the children would ultimately have been called a liar, the judge said.
Counsel Arthur Fairlie submitted there could be further discounts for remorse beyond that inherent in the pleas, for previous good character, and for a causal nexus between the man's earlier experience in a war-torn country and this offending.
Prosecutor Richard Annandale argued against it.
Annandale said the man's past circumstances were self-reported with no supporting evidence.
That self-reported background and this offending showed the man was someone completely different to the person he seemed. Coupled with the duration of this offending, it negated any suggestion of previous good character, Annandale said.
He noted the man seemed to minimise his conduct when speaking about it for a pre-sentence report.
This sentence would be the end of the criminal prosecution but not the end of the effects of this offending, Annandale said.
One of the complainant's mothers, in her victim impact statement, said the girls would have their heads down for the rest of their lives but he hoped that would not be the case – "that this court will show them it should be this man who has his head down", Annandale said.
Judge McDonald limited the additional discount to 5 per cent, saying it was for a combination of the man's age and a degree of remorse.
The judge said he would not go into what the man reported happened to him overseas, what organisation he joined, or what he claimed he had to do as a result of it. That was decades ago, and could not be causative of the man's offending against these children, the judge said.
Two of the man's daughters - the victims' mothers - read their heart-wrenching victim impact statements aloud to the court.
Each said they could not believe this man who they loved and trusted the most in life had now turned into the man they hated the most. They would never forgive him.
Judge McDonald said the children were to be commended for their bravery in coming forward as was the whānau for supporting them – not the offender.
About 15 close family and other whānau members were at court for the sentencing, albeit due to Covid protocols many of them had to watch the sentencing via AV-link from another room.
Due to the custodial sentence, the man will be automatically added to a national register of child sex offenders.
