Sex abuser jailed for seven years

A man who sexually abused three boys repeatedly over a nearly six year period has been jailed for seven years.

Truck driver Stanley Cowley, 46, appeared in Wellington District Court for sentencing today after admitting 27 sex offences between 1999 and 2005.

His offending began with a 10-year-old boy whom he took for rides in his truck, stopping at secluded places where the abuse would take place.

He showered the boy with gifts and instructed him not to tell his parents, enabling Cowley to continue the abuse undetected for three years.

In his victim impact statement, the boy, now 18, described how he still trembled when recalling his encounters with Cowley.

Cowley, who lived in the Wellington suburb of Tawa, later befriended two boys aged 13 and 14, repeating his practice of taking them for rides in his truck.

He gave them cellphones so he could contact them and organise meetings and even took them on a holiday to Rotorua.

He occasionally rented hotel rooms for the three of them, plying the boys with alcohol and cannabis.

The offending generally started with kisses and hugs before Cowley began fondling the boys and sometimes performing oral sex on them.

In his defence Cowley claimed he knew what he was doing was wrong, but while he was using the boys for his own gratification, they were also using him to get what they wanted.

Judge Stephen Harrop acknowledged that Cowley had himself been a victim of "much worse offending" over a period of eight years while in foster care as a child.

"This is, I think, a classic case of you doing to others what was done to you."

However, he while he accepted Cowley may have been "programmed to offend like this" he did not accept this as mitigation for Cowley's actions.

"You were in the best position to know how these sorts of things affect young boys."

Defence counsel Keith Jeffries said Cowley had entered early guilty pleas, was remorseful and understood he needed to seek help to ensure he did not reoffend.

He suggested a sentence of around five years.

Judge Harrop gave little credit to Cowley's willingness to enter a programme for sex offenders, saying if he had been truly concerned he would have taken action sooner - ideally before his offending.

Crown prosecutor Mark O'Donoghue proposed a starting point of around 10 years jail, which was accepted by Judge Harrop.

Mr O'Donoghue said all three children suffered "very serious effects" with each reporting behavioural problems and issues at school.

Judge Harrop said while Cowley had never gone so far as to rape the boys, the abuse had been premeditated and continued over such a long time that it was no less damaging to his victims.

Were it possible to issue a cumulative sentence, Cowley would have faced up to 294 years in jail, Judge Harrop said.

Instead Judge Harrop set the starting point at 10 years, but granted a 30 per cent discount in light of Cowley's early guilty pleas sparing his victims the ordeal of giving evidence in court.

He was sentenced to seven years jail with a minimum non-parole period of 3-1/2 years.

In his victim impact statement, the youngest boy said Cowley's admissions of guilt felt like "the weight of two elephants" had been lifted from him.

- NZPA