A Wellington man, sentenced to three years jail today for drugging and sexually assaulting his stepdaughter, had previous convictions for having sex with a minor in 1992.
The 46-year-old man, who has name suppression, was found guilty in Wellington District Court last month of indecently assaulting a person under 16, and stupefying with intent to facilitate indecent assault.
He offered his step-daughter, aged 14, $30 to "scull" five drinks with vodka and fed her three sedatives when she visited her mother during school holidays in October last year.
She woke to find him stripped off to his underpants and straddling her while he rubbed her breasts.
The prosecution sought a starting point for sentencing between three and four years, but defence lawyer Steve Gill suggested to Judge Jan Kelly that two years would be right.
The probation service said in a pre-sentencing report the man could serve home detention.
But the judge said home detention was available only for crimes where the sentence was under two years, and that even if she had considered such a low penalty, "I would not have imposed home detention" because it would not provide sufficient "denunciation and deterrence".
She noted the man continued to deny he had committed the crime, and said: "There are no mitigating facts in relation to you."
But she lowered the penalty by six months for a degenerative nerve disease which affected his balance, and added six months for his previous 20 offences, mostly dishonesty.
Judge Kelly said the man's actions had wreaked havoc on the life of the girl, who said in a victim impact report that she felt her family had been torn apart.
The girl's mother - who has four other children ranging from 10 years to adult age - had cut off communications with her. The girl's schoolwork and the lives of her father and step-mother had also been affected.
The man needed to be held accountable for what he had done to the girl and her family, Judge Kelly said.
