Elderly paedophile jailed for four years

A frail 82-year-old paedophile has been jailed for four years after a lifetime of preying on young boys.

Arthur Townsend was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison by Judge Alistair Garland in the Palmerston North District Court.

Townsend pleaded guilty in June to two counts of sodomy, a count of inducing an indecent act and a representative indecent assault charge – all against boys under the age of 16. The admissions came three weeks before he was to go to trial.

Townsend's offending, between 1983 and 1985 against three boys, was described as premeditated and predatory by Judge Garland.

"You ingratiated yourself with these young boys by supplying them with alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis and money."

Judge Garland was also "disturbed" that Townsend's offending spanned three decades, beginning in the late 1960s.

"I'm told that you display limited remorse for your offending, calling the victims `so-called victims'. That indicates to me that you don't really think they were victims."

The men, now in their late 30s and early 40s, who were violated in the 1980s, said they suffered from anxiety, panic attacks and nightmares.

They also spoke of drug and alcohol issues in their victim impact statements.

When the 1980s offences occurred at Townsend's Otaki Beach home, he already had six convictions of the same nature.

Then, in 1991, he was convicted of two more sexual offences against boys.

A decade later he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment on three more sex offences, which complicated yesterday's sentencing.

Judge Garland had to put himself "in the shoes" of the 2001 judge and take into account the totality of the offending.

He put the 2001 charges to the side and began with a starting point of seven years' imprisonment, which was discounted to five years nine months for guilty pleas and his age.

This was then dropped to four years after looking at what the 2001 judge would have handed down if the 1980 charges were before him then.

"Regrettably, I am not able to impose a minimum term on you today in order to protect the community."

Townsend was also entitled to the sentencing levels of the time the offending took place, the judge said.

Sodomy had a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment when Townsend committed the crimes.

"I note that the charge of sodomy can now be charged as sexual violation, which would today attract a sentence of up to 20 years' imprisonment."

A supervision order to aid Townsend's rehabilitation was extended by two years and is now due to expire in July 2012.

He was described as a medium to high risk to young boys, but defence lawyer Brett Crowley said he no longer had "urges" due to his age.

"He was an alcoholic at the time and living a disgusting lifestyle."

Initially, Townsend could not recall the 1980s offences because of his alcoholism but had since acknowledged them, Mr Crowley said.

Townsend had never married and had no children.

He was also sentenced yesterday to two years' imprisonment on the charge of inducing an indecent act and one year for the indecent assault, both to be served concurrently with the four-year sentence for the sodomy charges.

- © Fairfax NZ News