Hungry, abused children were left to forage
A man’s parenting was so appalling that children in his care were left to forage and steal to get food.
“That is a sign of their desperation,” said Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave as he jailed the 63-year-old man who now faces a massive jail term imposed for years of abuse.
He was jailed for 16 years, but he continues to deny the offending and he won’t consider any rehabilitation programmes which may mean he serves the whole sentence.
Judge Neave imposed an eight-year non-parole term as part of the sentence, but he also said the Parole Board was unlikely to release the man while he maintained his attitude.
His victims were in court to see him jailed for offending that stretched from 1990 to 2003. He had denied all the charges at trial, but a jury found him guilty of three charges of indecent assault, three of assault with a weapon, four of assault on a child, two of neglect of a child aged under 16, two of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, and one of doing an indecent act on a child.
Defence counsel Tim Fournier said the neglect had arisen from “disinterest” in a household where there had been a pervasive and over-bearing attitude.
Prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore asked for a non-parole term to be imposed in spite of the man’s intransigence making his release unlikely. If there was any unexpected change of attitude it could lead to his early release on serious charges.
Judge Neave said the offending involved touching the two girls and indecencies, and assaults on the girls and a boy including beatings with a leather belt. One girl was grabbed around the throat, pushed against the wall and punched in the head for a bad school report.
All three victims are now adults. Judge Neave said he hoped the jury’s verdicts would give the boy a chance for a normal life. One of the girls struggled to put the past behind her, while the other had “found salvation” in the birth of her own children.
The judge said the situation deteriorated for the children in the man’s care as alcohol took over his life. “You put alcohol before the children,” he said, pointing out that they had been hungry as well as suffering significant physical abuse. Their health had been neglected and they had taken to foraging and stealing food, from places such as kindergartens.
The judge told the man his pre-sentence report made “dismal” reading. He said: “I have seen not one scrap of remorse on your part. You continue to deny it.
“Given the fact that you are in complete denial and resistant to any notion of intervention I would have through your risk factors for further offending are through the roof.”
Category: News
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