Court orders woman to stop emailing father’s boss with rape claims

A woman has been ordered to stop sending emails to people containing accusations against her father. Photo / 123RF

A father has taken his daughter to court to have her banned from emailing him and others, including his boss, with incessant claims she was raped by him and kidnapped by her aunt.

The emails followed his daughter’s “bitter custody dispute” with her ex-husband, the father said in his urgent application under the Harmful Digital Communications Act, to the Hutt Valley District Court.

She believed her father and his family were siding with the ex-husband in relation to the dispute, he submitted.

His daughter had since been “persistently emailing and harassing anyone perceived to be involved in the custody dispute including the presiding judge”.

The civil matter was considered by Judge Kevin Kelly on the papers and in his recently released decision, which suppresses the pair’s identities, he said the father alleged he had suffered as a result of the communications.

The decision outlined how the daughter emailed her dad’s employer, and others, alleging she had been raped by him.

She also claimed an aunt, her father’s sister, had kidnapped her and that she had been forced to live in an “illegal brothel”.

In the emails, she provided a date for the alleged offending, named her father, and said he had previously served time in prison.

She planned to take her allegations to the police, she wrote.

The father complained to Netsafe about the emails and the agency advised his employer to block her email address.

While Netsafe did not express a view as to which communication principles may have been breached, Judge Kelly found there was a prima facie case, meaning on first impression, a number of principles were breached.

Those included that digital communications should not be threatening, intimidating, or menacing, used to harass an individual, or make a false allegation, the judge said.

While the father told the court he had previously been to jail, he claimed to have since turned his life around and denied his daughter’s allegations.

He said the constant emails and messages were incredibly stressful, particularly as he was going through a health scare.

In considering whether to make an order to stop the woman from posting to social media or sending any digital communications about her father, Judge Kelly found the content of the communication, alleging serious criminal offending, was likely to create significant harm to the man.

He also found the content was intended to cause him harm, that he was a vulnerable person, and the communications extended into the public arena.

The proper course of action would be for the woman to take her allegations to the police, the judge noted.

“On balance, I am persuaded that the threshold for making an order is met.”

But Judge Kelly only imposed a temporary order pending the final decision on the matter.

He said it would be against the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act to issue a final order without giving the woman an opportunity to be heard, as the application was made on a without-notice basis.

The judge directed the father and daughter to attend a judicial conference at the Lower Hutt District Court at a later date.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a News Director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.