June 01, 2010

'Be gone,' victim tells sex offender

Maurice Percy McMillan?s wife was helped from the courtroom weeping as the 60-year-old man was jailed for three years five months for the sexual abuse of a girl.

The victim, now in her 20s, was in court to see McMillan jailed and a friend read out her victim impact statement.

The statement described McMillan as ?a sick, twisted man? and told how her memories of her childhood had ?bad, dark, memories? of the abuse.

She said: ?Eventually, I realised my life was very different to others of my age and that hurt. The secret I carried around was truly devastating.?

She told the Kaiapoi man: ?Be gone and never return anywhere near me and my family again.?

The charges say the offences occurred at various rural locations around North Canterbury. Three of the charges refer to the girl being aged under 12 at the time, but the rest refer to her being aged under 16.

The charges are indecent assaults, involving touching, and inducing indecent acts of oral sex.

Defence counsel Grant Tyrrell read out a letter from McMillan apologising to the victim and her family. He said his client was willing to undertake the Kia Marama sex abuse programme while in prison.

Crown prosecutor Catherine Butchard said the offending had been premeditated and there had been grooming of a young and vulnerable victim.

McMillan pleaded guilty in March and had been remanded in custody for sentence, and many members of his family and the victim?s family were in the Christchurch District Court for the sentencing.

Judge Jane Farish said the day was a tragedy for everyone there and she could tell that emotions were running high. She had seen that McMillan and his wife had been very distressed on the day he pleaded guilty to the charges.

She said it was evident that McMillan still did not quite grasp why he had abused this girl but he was beginning to understand the effects of his offending.

She read references provided for McMillan, a first offender, but told him: ?You had a very dirty secret you were keeping.?

She reduced McMillan?s jail term because of his remorse and his guilty pleas which had spared the victim and her family the ordeal and delay or going through a trial.

She hoped that McMillan would get into the Kia Marama programme in prison as soon as possible. She accepted that the prison term would be a significant penalty because of the state of his health.

Imposing the jail term, she told the victim and her family, ?Hopefully, this will bring and end to your suffering.?