Hawke's Bay winemaker sentenced to preventive detention for sex offences involving young girls

Warwick Orchiston, pictured in 2003 when he was jailed for similar offences.

A Hawke's Bay winemaker who described his sex offending involving young girls as "a funny sort of thing that happens" has been given preventive detention.

Warwick Roworth Orchiston, 78, was sentenced in the High Court in Napier on Thursday by Justice Karen Clark.

Stuff reported that in sentencing Orchiston to preventive detention, Clark noted that the once respected winemaker had made no efforts to address the causes of his offending.

Clarke said Orchiston refused to acknowledge he had a problem, denied he had created victims and made derogatory comments about the victims' parents, Stuff reported.

Last June, Orchiston had admitted multiple charges of sexual offending against girls under 12.

The offences included indecently assaulting a female under 12, unlawful sexual connection with a female under 12, and doing an indecent act on children under 12

The offences, which included crimes described by Orchiston as "a funny sort of thing that happens", were committed in 2018 and involved three victims.

Orchiston was once a respected Hawke's Bay winemaker, as well as a travelling sweet salesman.

But he was jailed in 2003 after a trial, in which he was found guilty of similar offences against young girls. He was released in 2008 after serving a 4-1/2 year sentence.

Last June, in the Hastings District Court, head bowed, Orchiston admitted he had offended again - he pleaded guilty to 23 offences that happened in 2018 - a decade after his prison release.

A police summary of facts outlined his modus operandi - he befriended all three victims and their families, quickly gaining their trust.

He treated the children to outings at McDonald's and gave them money, gifts and clothing.

He took the girls away on trips, where he tried to get them to go "skinny dipping" with him. They declined.

Orchiston would also touch the girls inappropriately. He was charged after children's clothing including underwear, swimming togs and erotic publications were found when they searched his Flaxmere home in May.