William Stephen Easton during an earlier court appearance.
Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
A Kerikeri man who abused six boys more than two decades ago, while he was part of an underground sect, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.
William Stephen Easton, known as Bill Easton, has been sentenced in the Kaikohe District Court on 55 charges related to historic sexual offending against children.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Brandt Shortland said the level of Easton’s offending was unprecedented, it was premeditated and a betrayal of trust.
He said the offending spanned four decades including when he was a church leader, a position of trust that he abused.
The 80-year-old was a minister of the Two by Twos, also known as The Truth, a secretive Christian sect.
Responding to the sentence, the police said they wanted to acknowledge the victims and their families and their ordeal.
No conviction would ever take back what had happened, Detective Constable Mark Reid said.
He commended those who came forward to report the offending and who testified at the trial.
Easton was a well-known figure in his community for many years and in continual contact with children and young people.
It could be incredibly hard and at times distressing to report or talk about incidents of this nature, but police took sexual offending seriously.
They had officers dedicated to these cases, and they would ensure victims had a safe space to report offending in confidence.
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