Raniera Tau appears for trial in the Whangārei District Court on eight charges related to alleged indecent assault. Photo / NZME
WARNING: This article discusses allegations of sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
A man on trial for indecent assault says a teen gave consent when she said he could touch her gave consent, despite the nearly 50-year age gap between them.
However, the girl told the court her response was out of survival as she was in the middle of nowhere with no way out.
Raniera Tau, also known as Sonny Tau, is on day four of a jury trial for six charges of indecently assaulting a female over the age of 16 and three charges of perverting the course of justice at the Whangārei District Court.
The Crown alleges on a date in early 2017 Tau messaged the girl’s parents, whom he knew, and offered to take their 16-year-old daughter fishing for the afternoon.
It was not uncommon for Tau to take the girl out, however, when they arrived at the remote Rangi Point 40km away from her home, he rang her mother and told her the tide was too high to drive home and they would need to stay overnight.
The girl said in her evidential interview she looked at the tide and “That was a lie.”
Tau organised to stay at a friend’s bach which had two single beds and one double. As the night closed in, the girl said she became scared and Tau asked if she wanted to sleep in a single bed or with him.
The girl said she chose to sleep with him.
Once in the bed, several alleged indecent assaults occurred including kissing her neck and back and other touching.
Crown lawyer Geraldine Kelly said the girl was taught to respect her elders and did what she was told when he asked her to undress.
Tau, who was 63 at the time, allegedly told the girl he had testicular cancer and placed her hand on his genitals.
“I remember feeling confused and lost like why is he doing this? I remember feeling really scared cos I did not know what was going to happen next,” she said in her interview.
“I just laughed, but in my laugh, I was scared.”
The following day, Tau allegedly tried to touch the girl again and when he dropped her home, allegedly moved his face to suck her bottom lip when she kissed him goodbye on the cheek as was normally culturally appropriate.
Kelly said Tau allegedly tried to approach the girl’s parents three times to prevent an investigation from continuing, at one stage offering $20,000.
The girl told Tau she would accept $120,000 on the condition he told his wife.
“Tau refused to tell his wife and that was that,” Kelly told the jury.
The girl spent a day under cross-examination by Tau’s lawyer, Arthur Fairley last week who pressed her on what her understanding of the word “yes” was.
“When he put his arm under you did you move away,” Fairley asked.
“No.”
“Did you get out of the bed?”
“No.”
“When he asked if he could touch you, you said ‘yes’?” Fairley asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“What does the word ‘yes’ mean to you?”
“Yes means approval,” she said.
The complainant then went on to say she was in a state of survival out of fear of what might happen if she said no.
When the girl went to police in 2017 an evidential interview was recorded however two years later, two further statements were obtained from her which then revealed Tau had attempted to settle the matter out of court for a financial sum of $20,000.
Fairley questioned why it had taken two years to tell the police about the financial pay-off and the girl responded “It just didn’t cross my mind”.
Fairley asked her who came up with the figure of $120,000.
“I just came up with a big number,” she said.
“Was it your understanding you were able to get some money from Tau?”
“It was his idea to settle outside of court,” she said.
“Did you say the lowest I’m gonna go is 100K?” Fairley asked.
“Yes.”
“When you left that meeting did you think you were going to get some money?”
“No, I didn’t think I was going to get anything, not even if he would tell his wife the truth,” she responded.
Fairley closed off the cross-examination by putting to the girl she never gave Tau the indication she did not want to be touched.
“I couldn’t say no, I was afraid to say no.”
The jury sitting before Judge Taryn Bayley is expected to retire to consider their verdicts later this week.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
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