The former Master of the Bells at Dunedin's First Church has
been jailed for seven-and-a-half years for prolonged and
predatory sexual offending against a young girl in the 1980s.
David Hockley (69), raped the girl the day before she started
high school in 1985. He continued to sexually abuse her up to
six times a week for several years, often in the attic of
First Church where he had taken her for bell-ringing lessons.
Justice French told Hockley in the High Court in Dunedin
today there were no mitigating features about the offending.
She said the statement the victim read to the court was "an
absolutely shocking account" of the incalculable harm Hockley
had caused.
But she gave him credit for pleading guilty to the charges of
rape, indecent assault and possessing a pornographic video
which he often made the victim watch during the offending.
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