Adam Brook sentenced for sexual violation of Canterbury teenage girl

Adam Brook was sentenced to two years and three months' imprisonment on charges of unlawful sexual connection and indecent assault.

WARNING: This story discusses sexual offending and may be distressing for some readers

A young woman has addressed an older man who sexually violated her, telling him through tears how his actions continue to haunt her.

She has recurring nightmares, wakes up screaming and crying, and has changed in nature over the years since the assault occurred.

“Your actions destroyed my teenage years. You made me grow up too soon,” she told him, through her victim impact statement.

“I felt unable to stand up for myself. You dragged me through some of the toughest times of my life.”

Adam Brook was 46 when he committed unlawful sexual connection and indecent assault against the victim, then 16.

He was found guilty of the offending at a jury trial in July.

On Friday, she sobbed as a packed courtroom in the Christchurch District Court heard her statement at Brook’s sentencing.

“I often feel uncomfortable around others now. I am disengaged, I often break down in tears,” she told the now 50-year-old defendant.

“I turned to self-harm ... sometimes when I have flashbacks, those things return.

“I need closure. I will never forget what you did.”

The offending occurred a few years ago and she hated that the road to justice had taken so long.

However, she said that in the meantime, what had happened to her had given her the determination to obtain a qualification in a field where she could help others.

Judge Duncan Harvey said the case was a tragedy for everyone involved.

According to the summary, the victim was known to Brook, who had been drinking on the day of the offending.

That evening, they were staying at the same Canterbury house, and the victim was sleeping in the lounge.

She woke to find him naked from the waist down and masturbating.

He approached her and she fled to a bathroom and closed the door.

After some time, she went back to sleep in the lounge.

But Brook returned and sexually violated her.

Judge Harvey said it was only when the victim used Brook’s name, and repeatedly told him to stop, that he left her alone.

When he was later interviewed by police, he said he had mistakenly tried to kiss the victim.

Judge Harvey said reports showed Brook did not accept he was guilty of the offending and blamed alcohol, while appearing also to have no remorse.

The judge said the victim was vulnerable and the offending had not taken place in a “fleeting moment”.

“It involved a number of events; your offending was prolonged, the scale of it was an aggravating feature.”

The judge also did not accept Brook’s intoxication was a mitigating factor.

Following a starting point of three and a half years’ imprisonment, Judge Harvey applied a 35% discount for Brook’s previous good character, his effort to address his alcohol abuse, and for his $15,000 offer of emotional harm reparation to the victim.

Brook was then sentenced to two years and three months in prison.

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.