- A man raped his own stepdaughter for ten months
- Girl says her biological mother doesn’t believe her
A stepfather has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for the serial sexual abuse of his then seven-year-old stepdaughter, as a harrowing victim impact statement was read out in court.
The 32-year-old man, whose name cannot be revealed for local legal reasons, was convicted by a jury in New Zealand on six counts of rape and showing pornography to the girl over a 10-month period.
He was sentenced for his crimes on Tuesday while standing inside a courtroom attended by his supporters.
The man from Tauranga, on New Zealand’s North Island, still denies committing the disturbing crimes.
The court was told that the girl was seven years old when the man first called her into his room and forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to the court. New Zealand Herald.
The man would call her into his room and force her to perform oral sex on him while his younger siblings were asleep, often playing on his tablet during the act.
He told her how to perform oral sex and that his mother also did the same to him.
For 10 months, the man made the seven-year-old girl perform the act repeatedly, including at another family member’s home and on camping trips.
A man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for disturbingly assaulting his own stepdaughter
The girl was sometimes awakened from her bed in the same room as her sleeping siblings before the man covered her with a blanket and forced her to perform oral sex on him while he watched television.
The man also showed his stepdaughter a pornographic video on his tablet while she was visiting a relative.
The girl, now 11, did not attend the sentencing but her victim impact statement, read by Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett, detailed the deep rift left in the family.
Her mother believed her stepfather, not her.
“I have no mother. She doesn’t believe me, she believes him. Now, instead of love, I feel hatred towards myself,” Ms. Pollett read.
She said her stepfather’s family had been like her own, but they had turned their backs on her since the allegations and the trial.
“I sometimes get messages from them saying they hate me. It’s like all the people I loved and was always close to suddenly disappeared because of this. I lost my whānau (family).”
The girl wrote that losing contact with her siblings had been the hardest part of the ordeal.
She had helped raise them, saying she loved them.
He also said that he lost the man he called his father.
“He was like a father, but he wasn’t a good father. That hurt me. What he did is not what fathers are supposed to do.”
She said she was afraid of what others would say about her and found it difficult to accept that the experience was not her fault.
As the girl’s supporters left the courtroom, supporters of the accused insulted and abused her, claiming that there had been no evidence in the trial.
The judge ruled that imprisonment was the only option for the man, given the seriousness of his sexual crimes.
The girl said her stepfather was like a father, “but not a good father” after repeatedly raping her.
Judge Bill Lawson took into account the victim’s vulnerability, that the crime represented a significant breach of trust and that there were several instances of ejaculation during the assault.
The man was sentenced to an initial term of 11 years in prison and the judge concluded that he had committed an opportunistic crime.
The judge ruled that the man’s sentence could not be discounted given his positive background: a positive family, complete education and a stable employment history.
No discount was applied for prior good conduct, given two previous convictions in 2015 and 2016.
Lifeline: 13 11 14
(tags to translate)dailymail
