A man who targeted his daughters because he was bored with his sex life has been sentenced to less than two years in prison.
The man, who served in the military for some years, was granted final name suppression in the Dunedin District Court this week in order to protect the victims who share his last name.
He earlier pleaded guilty to four charges of doing an indecent act and indecent assault.
Between 2021 and 2023 he tried to get his daughters to engage in sexual activity with him.
On one occasion he groped his 12-year-old three times in one day.
He also played explicit material around her and would expose himself in front of her almost weekly.
Over the two-year period, he exposed himself to his eldest daughter more than 100 times.
The younger girl was subject to similar exposure for a five-month period when she was 12.
When the defendant knew one of them had alerted their mother about his behaviour, he went to the police station and admitted most of the offending.
The younger daughter told the court her father’s offending made her feel unsafe and scared.
"I feel angry, embarrassed, ashamed and sick to my stomach that this has happened to me."
She felt better now that her father was not in her life.
"I now take pride in my appearance as I know I won’t be looked at the way you looked at me."
The eldest victim said the offending caused her to miss out on school activities that she had looked forward to.
"You have taken away my sense of doing normal teenage girl things.
"You have taken away parts of me that will take years for me to find again."
The man said he gained "arousal and excitement" from his offending and had become "bored of sex with his wife".
Counsel Deborah Henderson explained her client was embarrassed and wished he never behaved the way he did.
"He knew what he was doing was wrong, but didn’t stop himself," Judge Michael Turner said.
"At this point he is at very high risk of reoffending ... he’s an untreated child sex offender."
He sentenced the man to 22 months’ imprisonment, and he was automatically registered as a child sex offender.
The judge also ordered him to pay $1000 to each victim.
