Rotorua man used young girl as sex slave

File photo / NZ Herald

A Rotorua man who treated a young girl like a "sex slave'' has been jailed for more than 13 years.

Richard Moke, 40, was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court to 13 years and seven months in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of eight years, after earlier pleading guilty to 10 charges of sexually assaulting a girl under 16.

These included three charges of sexual violation by rape, five charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and a charge each of inducing a girl under 16 to do an indecent act and indecent assault, all involving the same victim in Rotorua between August 16, 2010 and March 27, 2012.

All except one of the charges are representative, which means the offending happened more than once. He had also admitted a charge of assaulting the girl.

Rotorua Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon said the sexual offending happened on a frequent basis, several times a week over a 20-month period.

When interviewed for the pre-sentence report, Moke said he was "responding to the victim's needs'' and the victim encouraged his behaviour, she said.

Ms Gordon said Moke showed no remorse and no comprehension of the nature and extent of what he had done.

Moke's lawyer, Harry Edward, admitted there were no mitigating factors apart from his client's guilty plea.

Judge Chris McGuire said the victim had described feeling like she was "basically his sex slave''.

"It became normalised for her. This was her life. This was what her days and weeks consisted of,'' he said.

He said the victim had not written a victim impact statement and noted it was often not until later in life victims of this type of offending succumbed to the psychological damage.

Judge McGuire said he imposed the minimum eight-year prison period because an ordinary parole period would not have been sufficient to meet the need for denunciation and deterrence.