Jamie Michael Eder, 47, was jailed for more than two years when he appeared in the Dunedin District Court last week.
He earlier pleaded guilty to sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection — a charge which represented dozens of incidents with the same victim.
The court heard the offending began in the 1990s when Eder was just 13.
Eder would convince the girl to take her clothes off, then "examine" her.
The abuse progressed to him having the victim perform sex acts on him.
Years afterwards, she reported it to police.
"I don’t want future generations to have the feelings and memories that I do," she said.
"I wish I’d been strong enough to speak up sooner."
The victim told the court of how the abuse haunted her to this day.
She continued to suffer from stress-related chronic migraines and struggled with her mental health.
"I do my best to carry on with life but it’s incredibly hard," she said.
"I don’t know if this will help."
"I don’t hate Jamie, I hate that he abused me," she said.
"The only thing I can do is make sure everybody knows what he did to me."
Counsel Andrew Dawson argued Eder should be sentenced to home detention given the historic nature of the offending and his genuine remorse.
He highlighted the defendant was extremely young at the time of the offending, and he lacked understanding of the harm he was causing.
Eder had already apologised to the victim twice when she confronted him about the abuse, and more recently had written an apology letter.
"It is something that has sat with him for a long period of time," Mr Dawson said.
Since the offending, Eder had worked, raised a family and avoided any trouble with the law, the court heard.
Judge Michael Turner accepted the defendant was truly remorseful and acknowledged many years had passed since the offending.
However, he stressed the extreme harm to the victim.
He sentenced Eder to two years and five months’ imprisonment.
felicity.dear@odt.co.nz , PIJF court reporter
