Warning: This story deals with details of sexual assault and may be distressing.

When a teen overseas exchange student came to New Zealand, she was “full of hope and fun-filled excitement”.

But while staying with a host family in the Bay of Plenty, the man who should have been offering her safety and hospitality in a foreign country, betrayed her trust, and that of her parents, by indecently assaulting her.

Napoleon Eketone had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault and, today, was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court.

According to the police summary of facts, Eketone and the teen had been at the family home, along with Eketone’s children.

The pair were in the kitchen, where the teen was washing dishes, and Eketone was drying them.

Eketone moved closer and placed his hand on her waist, and then on her bottom over her clothes.

He then left the kitchen to check on his children, before returning.

Eketone asked the teen if she needed help, again placing his hand on her waist and bottom.

After they finished the dishes, he asked her if she “liked massages and would like one later”.

Napoleon Eketone was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court. Photo / NZME

He then asked for a hug, placing his arms around her, before moving his hands up the front of her body and touching her breasts over her clothing.

The summary of facts said the girl felt uncomfortable and left the kitchen, later struggling to fall asleep for fear he would come into her room.

At 4am, that fear was realised when Eketone opened her door, went in, and locked the door behind him.

He led the teen out an exterior sliding door, taking her into the garage where he had already laid out a blanket on the floor.

The teen used the light on her phone to see in the dark garage, and spied the blanket.

Eketone asked her if “she’d like a massage”, and she replied, “No, I want to leave”.

Eketone opened the door and let her out, and she went back to her room, where she immediately rang her mother.

The mother’s victim impact statement, provided to the court, said the call caused her to have a panic attack.

She had been “hyperventilating” as she heard her daughter in distress, crying and clearly frightened.

The woman got on a flight to New Zealand “as soon as possible”, while her husband was back home and struggling to work as he was worried about what was happening.

“This incident made our life upside down,” the mother wrote.

“It made us all exhausted physically and mentally. I was not able to sleep for a while. Even if I did, I woke up suddenly, and my heart started racing.”

She questioned why the incident had happened, and said she still felt angry.

Her daughter had come to New Zealand “full of hope and fun-filled excitement”.

Judge Paul Geoghegan said the teen’s experience should have been a “great adventure for a young person”.

Her family had relied on a host family to provide her with security, protection, care, and hospitality.

Eketone had failed to do that, the judge said.

In sentencing him, he said it had been a “gross breach of trust”, and the victim had been “highly vulnerable” given her age, the fact she was from a different culture and a long way from home.

Eketone, at 34 years old, had no previous convictions and was generally “well regarded”. The judge said it was “most unfortunate” that Eketone had ended up before the court, having offended in this way.

However, he wasn’t given any discounts for personal factors but did get a 25% discount for his early guilty plea.

The judge adopted a starting point of 16 months’ imprisonment and, after applying the discount, arrived at an end sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment.

The judge commuted it to one of six months’ home detention, with six months post-detention conditions.

Lawyer Michael Douglas had sought a lesser sentence of community detention, arguing that Eketone’s employer might be more inclined to keep him on if that were the outcome.

The judge agreed it was desirable for Eketone to keep his job, particularly because of the impact on his family, and his ability to pay reparation.

The judge said he “hoped [Eketone’s] employers take that into account”, but said he could not impose a sentence of community detention.

It would not “accurately reflect the gravity” of the offending, and there must be some deterrence, particularly to anyone hosting a young person from overseas.

An order was made for $4877 reparation to be paid to the parents of the victim, to cover the last-minute travel costs incurred.

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 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.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.