A man has been found guilty of sexually and physically abusing three girls, including his partner's two grandchildren, at various places in Northland and elsewhere.
The 48-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, elected to defend 11 charges laid against him by the Crown, but he lost a jury trial in the Whangarei District Court last week.
The jury retired to consider their verdicts before midday on Friday and returned with their decision at 2pm.
He was found guilty on five charges of indecency with a girl under the age of 12, two of rape, two of assaulting a child under the age of 14 and single charges of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 16 and indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 12.
The alleged incidents started in 2001 and took place at seven addresses in Northland, North Shore and Takanini when the complainants were pre-teens.
In her closing address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Anna Patterson said evidence tendered in court throughout the trial proved the man had a tendency or inclination to perform sexual acts on the three pre-pubescent girls.
The jury, she said, were the only people that decided what evidence to accept or reject while deliberating on the facts of the case.
If evidence from the Crown witnesses was confusing, she said the jury should assess whether to regard it as deceitful or a hallmark of human memory that faded with time.
Ms Patterson said the law required the Crown to prove that incidents of sexual and physical abuse, as alleged by the girls, happened as opposed to proving minor details such as the date and time they took place.
She said if the complainants' evidence supported that of other witnesses, then the man was guilty and if they didn't corroborate, the defendant was then a victim of an implausible coincidence.
Defence lawyer Chris Muston said child sexual abuse cases were often fraught with sympathy and prejudice which the jury should put to one side.
It was a matter for the jury, he said, to determine issues such as how one of the complainants could be raped as alleged without the defendant touching or grooming her. Such a cold, brutal and unbelievable allegation should be properly analysed by the jury before coming to their verdicts, he said.
The man has been remanded in custody for sentencing next month.