Sex offender appeals sentence

A man who was jailed for sexually abusing a girl dozens of times when he was a teenager has appealed his sentence in hopes of getting home detention.

Jamie Michael Eder, 48, was jailed for two years five months after he pleaded guilty to sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection — a charge which represented dozens of incidents with the same victim.

Yesterday in the High Court at Dunedin, counsel John Westgate argued not enough credit was given for the defendant’s youth or his good character.

At sentencing in December, the court heard the crimes began in the 1990s when Eder was just 13.

Eder would convince the girl to take her clothes off, then "examine" her.

The abuse progressed to him having the victim perform sex acts on him.

Years afterwards, she reported it to police.

In a letter to the court, the victim said: "I don’t hate Jamie, I hate that he abused me".

Mr Westgate argued the sentencing judge’s starting point was too high.

He acknowledged his client received a total credit of 62%, but thought more was warranted.

"When one stands back and looks like that I suppose the first impression might be that that’s quite generous," he said.

But he argued the starting point was high for a charge with a maximum penalty of 14 years and referred Justice Cameron Mander to cases with starting points above five years which were "far more serious" than Eder’s offending.

He said if Justice Mander reached an end point of under two years’ imprisonment, he should convert the sentence to home detention.

Eder’s proposed address for an electronically monitored sentence was deemed unsuitable because his children lived there.

"The Probation Officer took a fairly concrete view of the fact that because there were children under-16 in that house, that would automatically disqualify that address," Mr Westgate said.

But he said Eder was not a risk to the children and had not reoffended since the ’90s.

Crown prosecutor Craig Power said the offending was serious and the start point was available to the sentencing judge.

"The start point may well be at the top of the range but still ... was in range," he said.

"We are talking about dozens of acts here."

Justice Mander reserved his decision.

felicity.dear@odt.co.nz , Court reporter