Titford jailed for 24 years

20nov13 - Allan Titford sentencing, Whangarei Law Courts. PICTURE/APN

Allan Titford has been jailed for a total of 24 years on 39 sex and violence charges spanning more than two decades.

Titford is being sentenced in the Whangarei District Court today after he was convicted by a jury on 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 sexual offences were committed against his former wife Susan Cochrane who in an unusual step waived her right for name suppression so Titford could be named.

Judge Duncan Harvey today jailed Titford for a total of 24 years for the offences.

Titford came to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s over a dispute with the Crown over a farm he owned at Maunganui Bluff.

The land was subject to a claim by Maori and was eventually bought by the Crown to give to the hapu. Titford claimed that the hapu had torched his home and caused plenty of other damage to his farm during the dispute. But the verdicts show that he made up many of his claims.

His former wife Susan read her victim impact statement to the court, saying Titford had kept her "as a slave'' for 22 years.

The previous longest jail term handed out in Northland was to convicted murderer Wayne Bracken, 36, last year. Bracken was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum non parole period of 21 years for the murder of Aucklander Jack Davis on February 25, 2011.