Shane Colin Darlison, 55, appeared in the Dunedin District Court today and was sentenced to 10 months’ home detention.
His female co-defendant will be sentenced on Friday.
At the end of last year the pair pleaded guilty to three charges of incest.
The court heard the man showed little remorse for the impact his offending had on the woman and said her character and personality was the issue.
Crown prosecutor Craig Power said Darlison was in a position of trust with the woman, which he abused.
Counsel Anne Stevens KC highlighted the offending took place over an eight day period and the man had no prior convictions for sexual offending.
“It's an isolated offence,” Ms Stevens said.
“It was aberrant behaviour and it's behaviour he very much regrets.”
She reminded the court that a charge of incest “qualitatively, completely different from other sexual offending” because it involved two consenting adults.
“They're both complainants. . . neither is a victim because both of them consented,” Ms Stevens said.
She said Darlison was abusing pain medication for a back injury at the time which he thought may have impacted his judgement.
Ms Stevens also explained the man was attending counselling since the offending.
The court heard the pair were estranged for 16 years but hatched a plan to meet up.
Following that, they lost contact again until the end of 2020 when they arranged to meet in Dunedin.
The woman travelled to Christchurch to see Darlison again the following month and “quickly form[ed] a close bond which progressed to being in a sexual relationship” , a police summary said.
When the pair were not together they sent “thousands of text messages declaring their love for eachother and discussing their relationship in intimate detail”.
They also messaged each other about their sexual fantasies and wishes for when they next met and exchanged explicit photos.
The forbidden love was uncovered when the woman’s boyfriend came home from night shift and became suspicious of the “overly intimate relationship” the two had formed.
He checked the messages on his girlfriend’s phone and came across the intimate exchanges with Darlison.
When the man confronted his partner about what he had found she asked him to keep it a secret as she did not want to be locked up.
She told police the sexual activity was consensual, but claimed she was mentally unwell at the time.
Judge Jim Large did not grant the application for final name suppression, but the woman’s name and her relationship to Darlison had to be kept under wraps.
