Grandfather threatened to put girls up for adoption if they told anyone he was raping them

WARNING: This story discusses sexual abuse and may be upsetting.

A man who raped his granddaughters in their beds, shower, a shed and his car told them he would put them up for adoption if they told anyone.

The defendant, who has name suppression to protect the identity of his victims, started when the victims were four or five years old and continued for roughly 10 years.

The defendant appeared before a jury of seven women and six men in the Palmerston North District Court this week facing 67 charges of rape, unlawful sexual connection and performing indecent acts against his two granddaughters and two of their friends.

Today, he unexpectedly pleaded guilty, before the girls gave their evidence.

The offending initially came to light in 2014 after one of the girl's friends came to stay at the house.

There she was made to watch porn and to watch her friend have sex with her grandfather and was invited to join their "sex club" where flavoured condoms and sex toys were discussed.

The girl told her mother about what had happened and she was interviewed by police in 2014, as were the granddaughters.

However, it wasn't until 2020 that both girls gave full interviews about their grandfather's abuse to police and a case against him was made.

"At the age of 20 she gave one further interview, she finally detailed the sheer extent and depravity of her grandfather's offending against her," Crown prosecutor Guy Carter told the jury on Monday.

"She had enough, and decided she wanted to tell the full story."

Carter told the jury that the crown's case would outline how the defendant's abuse of his granddaughters spanned a decade where he would take photos of them, make them watch porn with him and rape them in almost every room of the house they would come to stay at.

The girls would stay with him often and for sometimes long periods of time and Carter said that he would tell them he would put them up for adoption if they told anyone about the abuse he was subjecting them to.

"She describes serious explicit and disturbing offending. It's not easy to listen to," Carter said.

"He used his own granddaughter as a sexual plaything to do whatever he wanted to."

The defendant was initially facing 67 charges and the trial was set down for a total of three weeks in the Palmerston North District Court.

However, that trial only got as far as selecting the jury and the opening statements from the crown before it was adjourned early afternoon on Monday.

The defendant sat flanked by two police officers listening to the Crown lay its case against him, at times shaking his head.

Today the man's wife sat on one side of the public gallery, and when he entered the dock the defendant mouthed "I love you" to her. She was not with the defendant when the offending occurred.

On the other side of the gallery one of his granddaughters sat surrounded by family. The other girl watched from the court's video link system.

Today he pleaded guilty to a raft of sexual charges against his two granddaughters and against two of their friends who had come to visit.

Judge Jonathan Krebs entered his convictions, dismissed the jury and remanded the defendant in custody until February next year.

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