Taiawa Harawira jailed in Auckland District Court over historical child sex abuse charges

Taiawa Harawira was sentenced in the Auckland District Court today over historical child sex abuse.

Taiawa Harawira, the son of prominent Māori activist Titewhai Harawira, has been jailed for almost six years on historic child sex abuse.

Harawira, 67, appeared before Judge Eddie Paul for sentencing in the Auckland District Court today after a jury found him guilty of six historical sexual abuse charges, dating back to the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The judge told Harawira that listening to the victim impact report was harrowing and he commended her for having the courage to make her complaint.

“The harm to the victim is lifelong,” the judge said.

The woman, now aged in her 50s, stood in silence as a victim coordinator read aloud her impact statement.

“I carry with me the heavy burden of a story that began when I was a child,” she said, explaining that Harawira began grooming her at 6 years old, “at an age when I should have been learning to tie my shoes”.

“I was robbed of my innocence. My childhood was taken from me,” she told the court.

The trauma lasted throughout her life, she said, explaining that she was anxious in public, had trouble trusting people and was probably much too overprotective of her own children.

“You broke me, but I am still here and I will never forget,” she wrote, adding that by telling her story, she can now finally reclaim her power.

“I’m naming you out loud, finally, and I’m not afraid of you anymore.”

As well as convicting Harawira on two rape and four indecent assault charges, he was also placed on the Sex Offenders register, which the judge said has “some consequences”.

The judge also told Harawira that no one disputed the service to Māori, that the entire Harawira whānau had performed.

“We are not here sentencing the Harawira whānau today,” he said.

The judge had a starting point of eight years for the two rape charges and the same for the other four indecent assault ones.

But he discounted 10% for Harawira’s youth, at the time of offending, 15% for the outstanding community contribution he has made since turning his life around in 2000-2025 and 5% for his age and ill health.

Harawira was supported by his wife and four of the couple’s children.

Following the sentencing, his lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, said an appeal would be lodged.

Last month, Harawira was found guilty of the historical child sexual abuse after a retrial in Auckland District Court, where the jury found him guilty on six charges, acquitting him of three others.

His accuser told the court last month that Harawira found opportunities to groom and repeatedly rape her when she was aged between 8 and 12, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, targeting her at homes in Whangārei, Northland and Avondale, Auckland.

In his defence, Harawira told the court that when he was arrested by police in 2020, it came as no great surprise.

He said over the years, that the victim’s alleged spur-of-the-moment lie had spun out of control, and when an official police complaint was made, and he was arrested, he told cops: “I know what this is about. I’ve been waiting for 30 years for this.”

At his trial, prosecutors said that amounted to an admission of guilt, while the defence said it was a reference to years of false allegations and feuding between his and the accuser’s families.

Crown prosecutor Jessica Ah Koy began Harawira’s previous trial in January last year by outlining in graphic detail 44 different charges: 30 alleged incidents of indecency with a child, four of threatening to kill, six allegations of injuring with intent to injure, and four counts of rape.

Nineteen charges were dropped mid-trial for lack of evidence. Of the 25 remaining, the first jury acquitted Harawira of three but remained deadlocked on the other 22 after four days of deliberations.

At his second trial, prosecutors presented a further streamlined set of charges: seven counts of indecency with a child under 12, one count of threatening to kill and two counts of rape. One charge of indecency with a child was dropped mid-trial after the complainant couldn’t remember whether counts one and three happened on separate nights, as indicated in the charges, or on the same evening.

The jury of seven women and five men for the second trial acquitted Harawira of two counts of indecent assault and one of threatening to kill. Unanimous guilty verdicts were returned for the six other charges.

Taiawa Harawira rings a bell to summon participants into a Te Tai Tokerau Electorate Committee meeting on the Whakapara Maraei, north of Hikurangi, on January 27, 2011. Photo / Malcolm Pullman / NZPA

Harawira, like most of his whānau, has been a staunch Māori supporter and seen as a political activist.

He spent over a decade working with West Auckland youths through his Christian non-profit organisation.

His mother, Titewhai Harawira, was a Waitangi staple who helped plan some of the major Māori rights protests and hīkoi in the 1970s and 80s. Her death in 2023, aged 90, prompted tributes from longtime activists and some of the nation’s most prominent politicians.

It was against the backdrop of the busy protest movement of the late 70s and early 80s that Taiawa Harawira’s accuser said he found opportunities to groom and repeatedly rape her at gatherings where activists strategised together and children from multiple families were looked after by designated adults.

Harawira, his accuser said, was one of those adults who would sometimes be recruited to watch the children. He denied ever taking on such a role, and also denied allegations that he would lift children by their necks in what started as rough play before allegedly evolving into sexual abuse.

In police interviews and during both trials, the woman said Harawira would sometimes bribe her with lollies and often threaten to kill her mother or victimise her little sister if she didn’t comply with his demands.

The accuser’s estranged sister twice gave evidence.

Harawira described his life in the late 70s and early 80s as a blur, in which he worked multiple jobs, renovated his first house and raised the first of what would eventually be 11 children. He didn’t have time to go to the gatherings at which the woman said she was abused and would not have been asked to watch over other people‘s children, he insisted.

He and his wife, Justice of the Peace Stephanie Harawira, would years later start Ezekiel 33 Trust - a Christian non-profit that was initially intended to provide a gathering place and events for young people in their community. The endeavour expanded over the years to include a food bank, budgeting advice, church services and counselling, resulting at one point in back-to-back New Zealander of the Year nominations for his wife.

Their faith was again front and centre in 2020, when Stephanie Harawira ran for Parliament as co-leader of the then-newly established One Party, which focused unabashedly on Christian values.