Victims of childhood rape and beatings confront abusive father at Nelson sentencing

A father who raped and beat his daughters, and violently assaulted his sons over a decade has been sent to prison. Photo /123rf

Warning: This story involves violence and sexual assault against children and may be upsetting to readers.

• A father was sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping and assaulting four of his children.
• Judge Jo Rielly highlighted the “severe coercive control” and “heinous crimes” committed over many years.
• The primary victim, now an adult, spoke of her decade-long struggle to heal from the abuse.

The physical wounds of children raped and savagely beaten by their father were never treated because they were never allowed medical help.

The emotional wounds remain for the victims, who are now adults and for whom post-traumatic stress disorder and depression are daily challenges.

The courage needed to overcome the “truly demonic acts” was evident in one of the victims as she faced her father in the Nelson District Court yesterday to deliver her victim impact statement before he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Judge Jo Rielly began from an overall 20-year prison starting point in recognition of it being the most serious offending of its type, and the “severe coercive control” the defendant had on the family for his outright sexual gratification.

“You assaulted your children, and while they were in the company of each other.”

The primary victim spoke eloquently of the decade it had taken to begin to heal from the “soul-crushing” abuse that began when she was 8 years old and continued for a decade at the hands of her “tortured and tormented” father.

“Only a person who has sold their soul could commit such heinous crimes,” she said.

She said the only way towards true freedom was to stand before him as the woman she was today and show him she was not broken beyond repair.

Despite the “decades of trauma” she had gone on to study and earned a diploma and a degree, got married and started a family, with the help of intensive therapy and support.

She never believed the day would come when she would see the law upheld and justice served, but she refused to be defined by what had happened.

Victim relieved to see justice served

Crown prosecutor Mark O’Donoghue said the opinion of a specialist was that the defendant’s primary driver was outright sexual gratification, power, control and domination of his family.

His underlying sense of entitlement and recognised narcissistic tendencies led the Crown to question if he felt any remorse.

The man was sentenced in Nelson District Court. Photo / Tracy Neal

Defence lawyer Tony Bamford said the defendant’s own experience of sexual abuse underpinned the offending, and he wanted the victims to know that what had happened to them was not their fault.

The 51-year-old, who has permanent name suppression to protect the victims’ identity, was sentenced for the crimes committed against four of his children over many years.

In the days just before a scheduled trial this year he admitted mostly representative charges of rape, unlawful sexual connection, sexual connection with a child under 12 years, sexual connection with a young person under 16 years and assault on a child.

Abuse revealed 20 years on

The years of severe sexual abuse which began with inappropriate touching and evolved into rape on an “almost daily or nightly basis” were not revealed until May 2023.

The police summary of facts said the children received many injuries from the beatings, including bruises, cuts, concussion and suspected broken bones.

Sometimes the defendant wore steel-capped boots during the weekly “hidings” against three of his children, who he also punched in the head and face.

He also used rolling pins, wooden spoons, a jug cord, a plank of wood or a belt to hit them.

They would be kept home from school until the bruises faded.

He would never let them receive any medical treatment so their injuries remained undiagnosed and untreated.

Over the same time, he raped and sexually assaulted the two daughters, one over a decade and the other over eight years.

He threatened the primary victim that he would hurt others if she didn’t have sex with him willingly.

She suffered beatings with a rolling pin and a bike lock to submit to his sexual assaults.

The abuse stopped by the time the primary victim reached 18 and finished school.

Her sister was regularly kept home from school, sexually assaulted, and, on occasion, made to watch pornography.

She described “being used as a sex toy, sometimes for the whole day”, and being too afraid to speak up through fear of being beaten.

The abuse ended when she was aged 14.

Judge Rielly said an overarching theme was that the defendant had conducted himself in a way that meant each victim felt powerless.

She said the scale of offending was not only that it had happened over many years, but that it had occurred so often.

Judge Rielly said a parent’s disregard for boundaries and the type of betrayal inflicted enormous harm on a child.

The man was sentenced to 16 years in prison on the rape charges, 14 years for unlawful sexual connection, seven years for sexual connection with a young person and two years for assaulting a child, all of which will be served concurrently.

He will serve a minimum time in prison of nine and a half years.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.