WARNING: This article deals with sexual violation and family violence and may be upsetting for some readers.

A young mother was sexually violated by her brother-in-law almost weekly for four years and was disbelieved when she tried to tell her family.

However, a judge did believe her and her abuser is now beginning a lengthy jail term, after which he will be deported.

“I will never forgive you. I will never forget the times you traumatised me,” the woman told her brother-in-law in a victim impact statement she read to the Napier District Court.

The abuse started when the man came into her bedroom, where she was sleeping alongside her newborn baby, when she was 17 years old.

She recalled the event as “the night you came into my room and put your dirty hands on my private parts right in front of my son”.

“You did it for years,” she said.

The man’s name cannot be published because this would lead to the identification of the victim, who has automatic name suppression.

Father died before truth came out

The woman said one of the saddest parts of her ordeal was that her father, one of the family members who did not believe her story, died before he could learn the truth.

The woman told the court that she first met her abuser when he and her family were living in another country more than a decade ago.

“I never liked you at all because I knew something was wrong with you,” she said.

In the years that followed, the victim and her family, and the man, relocated to New Zealand.

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At the time the abuse began, the victim was spending the weekends at her parents’ home, where the man and his wife, the victim’s sister, also resided.

The man would go into the room where she slept at the Hastings address and sexually violate her.

He did this “almost on a weekly basis” for more than four years.

The abuse came to an end around 2022 and the man went on to be charged with two counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection – one specifically for the first time he did it, and a representative charge for all the subsequent occasions.

He was also charged with indecent assault, relating to a time when he touched her through her underwear and asked her for sex.

Man denied offending happened

The man denied the abuse had happened but was found guilty by Judge Duncan Harvey after a trial in February.

The man was also convicted of family violence against his wife, including a time when he swung a knife at her in a car and another when he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her around a room.

He pushed her to the ground on another occasion, causing her to fall on to her stomach when she was more than 30 weeks pregnant.

Judge Harvey sent the man to prison for seven years for the sexual offending and added a cumulative sentence of 18 months for the family violence, resulting in an overall sentence of eight years and six months.

The court was told the man was an overstayer who would be deported upon release from prison.

Judge Duncan Harvey said the woman's evidence had the "ring of truth". Photo / NZME

Judge Harvey’s decision after the trial recorded parts of a police interview the sexual abuse victim gave in which she recalled the point where she had “had enough”.

“I told [my sister] and my Dad about it, and both didn’t believe me,” she said.

The sister gave evidence at trial in which she confirmed the victim had told her what the man had been doing, but she did not believe her.

The man denied the allegations when interviewed by police.

His lawyer submitted at trial that the Crown had not proven the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

But Judge Harvey focused on evidence related to an incident soon after the man arrived in New Zealand, where he asked the victim, his sister-in-law, to take her pants down and show him her genitals.

Evidence had ‘ring of truth’

“That evidence has a ring of truth,” the judge’s decision said.

“It would be an extraordinary thing for [the woman] who ... appeared totally without guile and relatively unsophisticated, to invent such an incident.

“What makes the evidence so important in my view, however, is that it establishes that from the time the defendant arrived in New Zealand, he had a sexual interest in [his sister-in-law].

“I found [the woman] to be a very careful witness. During the course of her evidence, it was put to her on a number of occasions that she was a liar.

“On each occasion, she quietly and calmly said that she would not lie about things like this.

“Despite various propositions being put to her, she remained consistent, and she did not retract or modify what she had already said.”

Judge Harvey said that the woman’s explanation for not complaining earlier also rang true, and research had established “very clearly” that victims of sexual abuse do not necessarily avoid their abuser, because of family dynamics.

He found the man guilty of the sexual violation and indecent assault charges.

At the sentencing hearing, the woman said that “the darkness lifted” when she heard that the man had been found guilty.

SEXUAL HARM

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email [email protected]
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.

FAMILY VIOLENCE

How to get help: If you're in danger now: • Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours or friends to ring for you.
• Run outside and head for where there are other people. Scream for help so your neighbours can hear you.
• Take the children with you. Don't stop to get anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay.
Where to go for help or more information:
• Women's Refuge: Crisis line - 0800 REFUGE or 0800 733 843 (available 24/7)
• Shine: Helpline - 0508 744 633 (available 24/7)
• It's Not Ok: Family violence information line - 0800 456 450
• Shakti: Specialist services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and children.
• Crisis line - 0800 742 584 (available 24/7)
• Ministry of Justice: For information on family violence
• Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga: National Network of Family Violence Services
• White Ribbon: Aiming to eliminate men's violence towards women.
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Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.