Despite a jury having found him guilty last year of holding two immigrants in slavery, Auckland-based Samoan chief Moeaia Tuai has held fast to the opinion that it was all a cultural misunderstanding.
A judge today emphatically rejected that suggestion as she sentenced Tuai, 63, to 16 years and four months’ imprisonment.
“It is a mistake to think this behaviour would in any way be acceptable,” Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith told the ex-corrections officer-turned-inmate as he returned to the High Court at Auckland for sentencing.
“I do not accept that abuse and exploitation of the vulnerable is acceptable in any culture.”
Jurors found Tuai guilty in November of two counts of dealing in slaves involving a male and a female victim whom he had helped bring to New Zealand. Those charges carry a maximum possible punishment of 14 years’ imprisonment.
He was also found guilty of assaulting the female victim with a weapon on one occasion, twice raping her and 14 other counts of sexual abuse that occurred over a period of years. He faced up to 20 years for the rape charges.
“I wish I were like any other young woman living her dream and pushing to strive to be able to concentrate on things without having flashbacks,” the woman wrote in a victim impact statement that was read aloud by prosecutors today. “But sadly, instead I am one of those girls fighting demons and emotions I don’t deserve every day.
“No girl deserves this.”
Both victims spoke little to no English when they came to New Zealand and were dependent on the defendant to survive, the judge said today as she outlined the facts of the case.
But instead of helping them establish a better life, Tuai controlled them in almost every way, including their finances.
The male victim outlined how he had hoped for an education but was instead made to do odd jobs and handyman tasks at a boarding lodge, working long hours for an estimated $100 to $150 per week.
After eight months, he was sent to live with the defendant’s daughter in Australia and had a degree of autonomy for a while. But then Tuai also moved to Australia and took full control of finances and his passport – allowing him to keep only about $100 per week.
Tuai also made the male victim apply for two bank loans totalling $55,000, which the judge noted “were fortunately declined”. But when that didn’t work he had the victim act as guarantor on a bank loan for Tuai’s daughter, which she didn’t pay, leaving the victim responsible.
“The male victim had earned good money in Australia and had worked long hours,” Justice Wilkinson-Smith noted. “You took almost all of that money he earned.
“I’m satisfied by the evidence I heard at trial that you used the male victim as a source of income when you were in Australia. You were not working. The male victim was funding your lifestyle.”
Despite Tuai’s threats that he would have the male victim deported if he ran away, the victim was eventually able to obtain a replacement passport with the help of his partner’s family and flee to New Zealand.
When the funds dried up, Tuai also returned to New Zealand. His focus then turned solely on the female victim, authorities said.
Tuai arranged for the female victim to work under-the-table jobs at two Auckland laundromats every day of the week, putting in 10-hour days for about $90 per day that he kept for himself.
He kept meticulous notes in a diary, which outlined how at one point the victim worked 57 days without a single day off.
“Your diary showed that the level of work she was undertaking was extreme,” the judge said today, adding up almost $11,000 that the defendant was thought to have kept for himself before finding the victim a more lucrative job as a temp worker.
He would drive her to and from work each day and didn’t allow her a mobile phone, the judge noted. Co-workers described sharing food with her because she often had no or little lunch. When not at work, she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without being accompanied by the defendant or his wife.
“She was in a very real sense your slave,” the judge said. “She did the work and you got the benefit.”
It is estimated he took roughly $80,000 of her earnings from that job over several years.
Like the male defendant, he also got her to apply for a $30,000 loan. When the bank instead approved a $7000 loan, he took all the money for himself and never repaid, the judge noted.
When the female victim also eventually ran away, she had only $800 in her account. The defendant withdrew it immediately upon realising she had left, “leaving her with nothing”, the judge noted. In a further act of spite, he called immigration authorities inquiring if her citizenship could be revoked. The recorded call, in which he expressed disappointment that it couldn’t, was played for jurors.
“It was clear, as far as you were concerned, she was only in New Zealand for your benefit.”
The sexual abuse, meanwhile, was alleged by the victim to have taken place both in Australia and in New Zealand – sometimes in the car as he drove her to and from work. Only the New Zealand offending, however, could be prosecuted.
It was another example, the judge said, of how “the female victim was treated by you as property in every way”.
The judge noted today that Tuai remains unrepentant.
“It seems to me you believed and probably still believe ... you were providing them with an opportunity,” Justice Wilkinson-Smith explained. “You thought that entitled you to the money they earned.”
Although slavery is a relatively rarely prosecuted charge in New Zealand, the judge noted on several occasions today that she feared it may be more widespread than is known. She said she hoped her words serve as warning that such practices are slavery and are illegal.
“You cannot bring people to New Zeaand and exploit them for their labour and income,” she explained. “This is not a case of cultural misunderstanding.”
One aspect of the sentence, she noted, would have to be to deter others from committing similar crimes.
She ordered a 12-year starting point for the rape charges and added two years for other sexual offences. An uplift of five years was added for the slavery charges, resulting in a combined starting point of 19 years.
Although slavery was not considered the lead charge, the judge reserved some of her most cutting words for her description of the crime.
“You exploited and used both victims in the most cynical way,” the judge said. “You saddled them with debt and you denied them the benefit of their own labour.
“It is not mitigating that a ... person is so vulnerable that they might accept slavery as an alternative to returning home to extreme poverty.
“You used the victims in every possible way and you showed no regard for their wellbeing. You placed no value on them. They were just there for your benefit.”
The judge allowed two 5% discounts, taking into account that his prison sentence may be more difficult than most due to his prior employment as a prison guard and his wife’s brain tumour. It should be noted that the wife also benefited from the slavery but that doesn’t change the fact she is unwell, the judge said.
A reduction of nine months was added to account for the year-and-a-half he spent on 24-hour house arrest awaiting trial.
Although it wasn’t asked for, Justice Wilkinson-Smith emphasised that she would not have allowed a discount for prior good character despite the defendant’s lack of prior criminal record. He used his reputation as a matai, or Samoan chief, to commit the crimes, she said.
“You say that the court did not consider your culture during the trial,” the judge explained. “Your offending is ... an abuse of Samoan cultural traditions.”
She also ordered that Tuai serve nearly half of his 16-year, four-month sentence before he can begin to apply for parole.
Struggling through tears today as he read a victim impact statement, the male complainant described his mixed feeling about coming to New Zealand years ago, leaving behind his “close, warm bond” with his family for a better life.
“The things I had been told did not match what actually happened ... and I prayed to God if there was a way to remove me from the hardship I was experiencing,” he said.
Years later, his mind remains uneasy and he is quicker to anger, he said, “all because I felt I had no freedom as a person”.
He thanked the kind Samaritans who helped him when he ran away, and later police and prosecutors who took the case seriously. Now reunited with his family, he said his parents are helping him to “rebuild the good life that was broken because of these people”.
The female victim said she, too, is trying to piece her life back together.
Giving evidence against Tuai at trial and providing a statement for his sentencing was part of that.
“I am determined to ensure my voice is heard and to explain the profound impact this horrific crime has had on me,” she said. “This is a big step for me as my voice was always silenced, but no longer today.”
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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