Pensioner given jail for sex crimes

A Napier man who diaried sexual offences against boys and later admitted them in court has become possibly the oldest New Zealander ever sent to jail.

The man, who turns 85 in April and whose name is suppressed, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison when he appeared before Judge Tony Adeane in Napier District Court today.

The eldest previously sentenced to jail were aged 84 years, according to court records.

Among pensioner sentencing in Hawkes Bay courts was that of Donald Macdonald-Dalkieth, who was recently denied parole almost three years into a term of five years and four months, imposed in March 2010 when he was 81.

At today's sentencing, the court heard there were three complainants. The main victim was repeatedly violated from about the age of eight to what the judge said was "well into" the teenage years.

There were grooming aspects to the case.

Judge Adeane decided against an offer of $12,000 reparation, offered by the defendant through counsel Russell Fairbrother. Crown prosecutor Steve Manning recommended that the money should go to the man's main victim.

The man faced 13 charges, some of which were admitted just after the Crown's opening address at a trial, as the main victim was waiting in another room to give evidence.

Most of the 13 charges were representative of repeated offending against two of the victims. Offending against the main victim began when the man was about 71.

They involved having unlawful sexual connection, and indecent acts and indecent assaults, variously involving digital penetration, sex acts and other abuse. The one charge relating to the third victim involved an act of kissing.

Mr Fairbrother was not surprised by the sentence. But he was surprised that his client's reparation proposal was rejected.