A former Salvation Army officer has been sent to jail for 10 years after he raped and indecently assaulted young girls in his care 30 years ago.
In the High Court at Timaru yesterday, Justice John Fogarty sentenced John Francis Gainsford, 69, to 10 years' jail on three
rape charges, and one year on a charge of indecent assault. The terms were to be cumulative, but the judge deducted a year on account of Gainsford's age and health. He was also sentenced to a jail terms ranging from three to seven years for indecency, which were to be served concurrently.
Gainsford, 69, had been convicted of three charges of rape and 19 of indecency after an eight-day trial in October.
He had admitted only four counts of indecency but a jury found him guilty on all but one of the charges.
The offences occurred at the Bramwell Booth Children's Home in Temuka, South Canterbury, during the 1970s and came to light this year.
Justice Fogarty allowed one of the victims to read an account of the effect Gainsford's offending had had on her life.
She said she and the other children had been lonely and vulnerable.
The children at the home had never been allowed to grow up as other children did, and the things that happened to them had been over their heads.
She said Gainsford, then a Salvation Army captain, was a hypocrite.
"You have been found a paedophile now, and you always have been one."
Gainsford, dressed in a dark jacket, white shirt and tie, stood impassively throughout the hour-long sentencing.
He gave a faint smile to a relative as he left the court.
- NZPA
