Whangārei father sentenced for drugging, sexually violating daughter and sharing to Twitter

The man shared pornography he filmed of his daughter on Twitter and enticed users to rape her. Photo / NZME

WARNING: This article discusses sexual abuse and may be upsetting to some readers.

A man who drugged his young daughter with sleeping pills, filmed himself sexually violating her and uploaded the footage to paedophiles around the world came face to face with his ex-wife today who had some final words for him.

The multiple videos, some of which show his daughter’s face, are now circulating amongst sexual predators online, unable to be retrieved.

“You are nothing,” she said to the man who believes he should have access to his children despite his horrific offending.

The man, who had a shared childcare arrangement with his ex-wife, was sentenced this week in the Whangārei District Court for multiple charges of child sex abuse including stupefying, possession of objectionable material, unlawful sexual connection by sexual violation and 17 charges of sharing an objectionable publication of his daughter.

The court heard he researched the sleeping pill zopiclone and its effects on children 35 times before obtaining a prescription from a doctor in the days leading up to his offending.

On one of his scheduled visitation nights with his daughter, he drugged her, sexually abused her and then shared the videos on Twitter.

U.S-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) intercepted his videos online deeming them objectionable and alerting New Zealand authorities.

When police searched his hard drive, they found footage of bestiality, child exploitation material and chats he shared online about what he had done to his daughter. The crown said the footage was just a sample of what he had in his possession.

Authorities also intercepted communications with a couple he had formed a friendship with from the United States who were sexually abusing their 4-year-old daughter. That couple have since been jailed.

Crown lawyer, Geraldine Kelly said the child was “out to it” while he violated her.

“I drugged her once with sleeping tablets, I used zopi,” he said in relation to one chat where he uploaded photos he had taken before and after sexually abusing her.

“You want to rape her, don’t you? I want to watch her get raped,” were among other messages he sent about his daughter. Some were so disturbing that when read in court, multiple people left the room.

Kelly said she did not buy the man’s excuse of memory loss.

“Those are the comments of this offender who claims to not remember what he had done,” Kelly submitted.

“He intentionally drugged her so he could offend against her without her waking up.”

Kelly said the child is still unaware of what happened to her but her face and pornographic material will be shared on the internet for the rest of her life.

“When she is told, it will have to be in a controlled environment especially because there is imagery of her in the internet. It is beyond comprehension. She will suffer this harm until the day she dies,” Kelly submitted.

Judge Gene Tomlinson was critical of the letter of remorse from the man and the multiple letters of support submitted by his family.

“His family need to stop blaming someone else and talk to their son.

“Their correspondence is victim-blaming when the finger needs to be pointed at you, it is you that made these choices,” Judge Tomlinson said.

“This offending was deliberate. You remember all too well, the unmasking of your conduct, you used a lie of ‘I do not remember.”

Most of the images seized on the offender's computer were of under 12-year-old girls. Photo / 123RF

Judge Tomlinson said the man had no remorse and continued to paint himself as “the good guy”, contributing to a growing demand for child exploitation material.

“Your daughter’s recording and sharing now joins the thousands of children objectified and traded.

“Her image will circulate online forever and I can not think of a more despicable legacy you have left for your daughter.

“The horror trade of sexual violence media perpetrated on the most vulnerable. The abuse is something they keep for the rest of their lives,” Judge Tomlinson said.

The man was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment and registered as a child sex offender.

Online child sexual exploitation is increasing in New Zealand, with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) recording a 283 per cent rise in reports of material from 2021 to 2023 compared to 2018 to 2020.

In 2023, over one million attempts to access websites harbouring child sexual abuse material were blocked by the Department of Internal Affairs resulting in 47 investigations, 15 prosecutions and 209 seized devices.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.