Geoffery Miller was jailed for historical offences against young girls. Photo / 123rf, Supplied
WARNING: This article discusses sexual abuse and may upset some readers.
It was not the sexual violence or years of trauma that finally broke a victim’s silence, but a chilling moment in adulthood when her perpetrator stood in her kitchen, boasting of being “proud” of his life.
The remark felt so brazen, it ripped open the locked boxes of pain she carried and gave her the courage to report Geoffery Miller to the authorities.
Now, Miller, 53, has appeared in the Whangārei District Court for sentencing on historical sexual abuse charges relating to two victims in separate decades.
He was found guilty by a jury earlier this year of 12 charges, including rape and supplying methamphetamine to one of his victims.
Miller’s first round of offending occurred when he was 14 years old and repeatedly sexually abused a girl.
The court heard he violated her with objects and, on one occasion, he plied her with alcohol until she passed out, and then raped her.
Decades later, Miller’s sexual offending continued but he had a new victim.
Miller repeatedly touched that girl sexually and gave her cannabis.
He also supplied her with methamphetamine and smoked it with her.
Miller touched her inappropriately and spoke to her sexually as a form of payment for the drug.
Both victims, now adults, read their victim impact statements to Miller while he stood in the dock at his recent sentencing.
The first victim said that when she was younger, she had been scared of Miller’s dark moods and he was intolerable to be around.
She said she felt safer on the streets, in the dark.
“I had to grow up real fast to survive you,” she said.
For years, she lived with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and had more than 20 clinical bouts of depression as a result of his offending against her.
When she encountered Miller in her adult life, she became triggered by something he said.
“You stood in my kitchen one day, in front of my teenage kids, and said, ‘I’m really proud of my life’,” the woman recalled.
“Those words triggered me and sickened me. How could you be proud of what you did to me?
“All the locked boxes in my brain, all the tucked-up pain came out piece by piece.
“That event is what brought us here today. Your words set me free. I finally felt the courage to stand up tall and do the right thing.”
The second victim also lived a life with mental health challenges linked to Miller’s offending and battled a drug addiction, which took hold after he had supplied her with drugs when she was younger.
“I’m constantly living the same thing, repetitive memories take over my mind that I never asked for,” she said in her victim impact statement.
“I had so much more potential than what I’ve been and what I am now. I don’t remember ever feeling happy or, let alone, good enough. Instead, I felt like a worthless piece of meat.”
Her statement had some parting words for Miller.
“I hope you f****** rot in sh**.”
Crown lawyer Danette Cole said both victims had reported Miller was also physically violent towards them.
“Both victims came forward and said how they thought their life would turn out differently, but because of the offending their lives have taken a turn for the worse,” Cole said.
Miller’s lawyer, Chris Muston, made no oral submissions at the hearing.
Judge Keith de Ridder noted Miller had denied the offending when speaking to pre-sentence report writers.
“You make no admission whatsoever of any offending and deny any offending of any sort,” the judge said.
“The report touches briefly on your upbringing and your employment history with some sense of self-pity arising from, what you say, were the actions taken against you by the victims’ families.”
Judge de Ridder said the offending, particularly with the first victim, was premeditated, violent and intrusive.
“There were threats made to her, in particular if she told anybody about this offending. And the jury obviously also accepted her evidence that you would become physically and verbally abusive towards her.”
The judge considered the act of supplying drugs to a child to facilitate offending against the second victim as an aggravating feature.
He sentenced Miller to five years and seven months for the rape of the first victim, and imposed an additional cumulative four‑year term for offending against the second.
Miller was sent to prison for nine years and seven months.
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.