Raniera Tau was on trial in Whangārei District Court on indecent assault charges. Photo / NZME
WARNING: This article discusses allegations of sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
The final trial for the year in Northland wrapped up on Thursday with a former Ngāpuhi leader being put behind bars for Christmas.
Raniera Tau, also known as Sonny Tau, was found guilty of four charges of indecent assault on a girl aged over 16 and one charge of perverting the course of justice after a week-long trial at the Whangārei District Court. He was found not guilty on two charges of indecent assault and two further charges of perverting the course of justice were withdrawn.
At trial, the Crown case was that in early 2017 Tau, who was chairman of Te Rūnanga ā Iwi ō Ngāpuhi for 10 years before resigning in 2019, messaged the girl’s parents, whom he knew, and offered to take their daughter fishing for the afternoon.
When they arrived at the remote Rangi Pt 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 police interview that 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 indecent assaults occurred, which the jury found Tau guilty of, including kissing her neck and back and other indecent touching, some of which occurred while she was asleep.
In the weeks following, Tau had three meetings with the girl and her parents in an attempt to resolve the matter outside of court. He offered them $20,000.
The girl told Tau she would accept $120,000 on the condition he told his wife, which he declined.
The complainant showed that although she said yes to being touched, she was scared of what might happen if she said no.
The girl’s father gave evidence at the trial about his daughter’s withdrawn demeanour when she returned from Rangi Pt and the interactions with Tau in the following weeks.
He said when he asked Tau, the chair of Te Rūnanga-Ā-iwi-o-Ngāpuhi at the time, whether he had “tutu’d” with his daughter, Tau responded “Yeah a little bit”.
“I let him know the consequences are not going to be good. Most importantly, our people. Because of his position as the chair of the rūnanga, he’s like a chief,” he told the court.
The father said he was attracted to the idea of settling the matter outside of court and told his daughter the amount should “hurt him as much as he hurt you”.
Judge Taryn Bayley summed up the jury’s responsibility in closings on Thursday morning, reminding them that the Crown must have proved the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Put emotion, sympathy and prejudice to one side when you are considering the allegations. You must treat Mr Tau as innocent until the Crown has proved his guilt.
“It is not enough he is ‘probably’ guilty. If you are not sure, you must find him not guilty,” she said.
Judge Bayley reminded the jury of both sides of the argument - the Crown saying she did not consent and the defence that she did.
The judge then outlined the legalities of consent saying it must be genuine and freely given appreciating the nature of the act that is about to occur.
“A person does not consent just because they do not protest or physically resist.
“There is no consent if the person allows or submits because they were fearful of what might happen to them.
“A person does not and cannot consent to a sexual act when they are asleep.”
It took the jury around four hours to unanimously find Tau guilty of four of the indecent assaults and perverting the course of justice.
Judge Bayley indicated due to the nature of the charges a term of imprisonment is “not unlikely”.
Tau was remanded into custody and will appear for sentence on February 19.
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.