A man who filmed himself raping his four-year-old son has been sent to prison indefinitely, 12 years after being convicted for indecently assaulting two young boys.

Justice Patricia Courtney sentenced the 27-year-old man in the High Court in Tauranga today to preventive detention with a minimum prison term of 10 years.



Photo: File.

MSN.com reports that the man was sentenced after admitting five charges of sexual violation and five of making objectionable publications.

The man initially denied the offending but pleaded guilty after the lost mobile phone on which he filmed the abuse was handed to police.

There were five separate videos of incidents over a three-hour period on one day between January and April 2014.

They show the boy being raped, and in some cases the boy seemed unconscious.

Police found sedative medication when searching the property where the offending took place, and the man’s lawyer agreed it was open for Justice Courtney to infer the boy was sedated.

The boy later said he had no ongoing physical injuries, but he found it difficult to sleep alone and regularly woke crying and screaming and having nightmares.

The man had already been convicted 12 years previously for indecently assaulting boys aged five and seven.

Justice Courtney said the man appears to have responded positively to treatment related to those offences, but that it was now clear that treatment hadn’t resolved the issues that led to this offending.

Psychologists said his risk of reoffending was high or moderate to high, and that the open-ended sentence of preventive detention was justified to protect the public.

“I am satisfied that in your current state you would pose a very significant and ongoing risk to the safety of the community,” said Justice Courtney.