He invited her to the address of a friend to smoke cannabis.
Judge Tony Snell said during today’s sentencing that Johnson supplied her with a “significant amount”, taught her how to use a bong and then introduced her to a drug but refused to say what it was.
Later at trial it was identified as methamphetamine, which Johnson facilitated the teen to consume.
She became severely affected by cannabis and meth, and began vomiting outside, which was when Johnson invited her to lie down on a bed upstairs.
She was then “almost immediately” indecently assaulted, before Johnson removed her clothing and raped her, Judge Snell said.
A few days later, on June 28, 2023, he met up with her again as she was walking at night and took her to an isolated beach, where she refused the cannabis offered.
Johnson then sexually violated her again and when she told him to stop he apologised and asked her to “keep it between the two of us”.
Despite being found guilty, Johnson continues to deny the sexual offending, claiming what happened was “consensual”.
Wiremu Johnson hides his face from media during sentencing in the Nelson District Court on rape and drugs charges. Photo / Tracy Neal
‘Disturbing and disgusting’
During Johnson’s sentencing in the Nelson District Court today, Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber read out the victim’s statement.
In it she said the physical and psychological impact on her had been severe enough that she could no longer stand the smell of cigarettes, and the sight of a white car frightened her.
She had been left “feeling like an alien” by the way people treated her when they found out what had happened.
What Johnson had done to her was “disturbing and disgusting”, and she hoped he could see it was wrong.
Judge Snell said the victim’s vulnerability was a “significant factor” in sentencing.
She appeared to be someone who was “extremely trusting”, yet inexperienced in the ways of the world and was “naively unable to protect herself” from someone like Johnson.
“The Crown says you are an experienced adult gang member and she was a naive 13 year-old who was far too trusting,” Judge Snell said.
“She had no ability to say ‘no’, or stop you doing what you did.”
‘A tortured upbringing’
Johnson hid his face from media today as the Crown called into question his claims he aimed to break away from the gang, and that he had suffered trauma as a child.
Webber asked the court to reflect on the “absence of information” confirming the claims, which courts frequently heard at sentencing.
However, defence lawyer Michael Vesty said Johnson was the victim of a “tortured upbringing”.
He said Johnson, who had been exposed to gangs, drugs and alcohol from a young age, was sorry for the whole situation and that if he had been sober, it wouldn’t have happened.
Judge Snell noted his 55 previous convictions since 2006, mainly for drugs, violence and sexual offending.
He said that given he maintained he was not guilty of the sexual offending, Johnson was not assessed as suitable for any prison rehabilitation programme.
A high risk of reoffending
Judge Snell said in sentencing Johnson to the term he did, that he was considered to be at high risk of reoffending.
From a starting point of 12 years and two months in prison, Johnson was awarded discounts for the guilty pleas on the drugs charges, and for his “very difficult upbringing”, which was found to be a factor in his offending, albeit self-reported..
He then jailed Johnson for 10 years and 10 months on charges of supplying cannabis, indecent assault on a female under 16, rape, unlawful sexual connection, and a separate representative charge of supplying methamphetamine.
The latter charge followed a police search in January, when messages found on his phone revealed he had offered to supply methamphetamine on three occasions in 2023.
Johnson had earlier pleaded guilty to the cannabis charge, was found guilty on the sexual offending charges and subsequently admitted the methamphetamine charge, following his trial in February.
He said he was dealing the drug to fund his own P addiction.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
