In December, Jamie Michael Eder, 48, was jailed for 29 months after he admitted sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection — a charge which represented dozens of incidents with the same victim.

The offending began in the early 1990s when Eder was just 13.

He would convince the young girl to take her clothes off, then "examine" her.

This progressed to Eder having the girl perform sex acts on him.

At sentencing the victim said: "I don’t hate Jamie, I hate that he abused me".

"The only thing I can do is make sure everybody knows what he did to me."

Counsel John Westgate said his client deserved more credit because he was very young when he offended and he was otherwise of good character.

He argued home detention should be the final sentence for Eder.

In a decision released this month, Justice Cameron Mander said the sentencing judge’s starting point in the sentencing calculations was too high.

"The margins are fine, but material, and I consider some adjustment is required to avoid an excessive starting point," he said.

But he did not believe Eder should be afforded any more credit.

"Mr Eder, in total, received a combined 62% deduction to his sentence for his guilty plea and personal circumstances that included his youth at the time, his good character since his offending, and remorse and reparation," Justice Mander said.

Justice Mander quashed the original sentence and instead imposed 25 months’ imprisonment.

felicity.dear@odt.co.nz