A teen who was sexually violated during a sleepover at a friend’s house says she now needs medication to help her sleep and has suffered from nightmares and suicidal thoughts.
Ittook her a year to go out by herself following the incident and she’s now fearful for her younger sister when she goes out.
“This incident really messed up my trust in people, for months after this happened, I didn’t go out much.
“It was well over a year before I could go out by myself, it was well over a year before I thought about dating,” she said in court this week.
But, Nicolas Andrey Santos Florez escaped imprisonment when he was sentenced today with the judge, Crown and defence agreeing he had a history of drug use which led to psychosis and a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Instead, he was sentenced to 10 months’ home detention for sexual violation by unlawful connection in June 2022 when the then 16-year-old victim was staying at a female friend’s address.
There was a small gathering celebrating a flat warming at the address where the friend lived with her boyfriend.
The boyfriend had also invited his 22-year-old friend, Santos Florez.
Upon going to bed at the address, the victim and two of her female friends slept in the same bed and were joined by the victim’s friend’s boyfriend and Santos Florez, who both slept on the end of the bed.
The victim felt uncomfortable with the men on the bed and they were both asked to sleep on the floor.
At about 7.30am the following day, Santos Florez got back on to the end of the bed where the victim was sleeping, reached up the end of her pyjama pant leg sexually violated her.
The victim awoke not knowing what to do, so she pretended to snore to show that she was asleep and not consenting.
The summary of facts stated the violation continued for about 30 minutes.
The victim eventually got out of the bed, left the room and told her friends what had happened.
When spoken to by police, Santos Florez said he had touched the victimand that she had asked him to. He said he was unsure whether she was awake or asleep at the time, and that when he stopped touching her, she left the bed quickly.
‘She was vulnerable’
In tears, the victim addressed the defendant, who was accompanied by an interpreter in the Christchurch District Court.
“I have had nightmares since this incident, I find it bad when I am alone, I take medication to sleep, since the incident I have had suicidal thoughts.
“This has drawn out over two years, giving evidence has been stressful, I just want to move on with my life.”
Crown prosecutor Courtney Martin said she wanted to highlight the grave effect the offending had on the victim and the ripple effects on her family.
“She was vulnerable, sleeping in the bed at her friend’s house.”
In terms of the end sentence, Martin said Santos Florez was suffering from a severe mental health episode.
The pre-sentence report had been positive although he wasn’t quite able to understand how the victim felt.
Martin said home detention appeared to be the least restrictive sentence.
Defence lawyer Joshua Lucas said not only Santos Florez, but his family were also aware of the damage caused.
His family had stepped up and made sure that he was not out wandering the streets or using cannabis which had caused the decline in his mental health, Lucas said.
“The future is bright if he is sentenced to home detention, with the support of his family and Totara House (mental health service), he knows this, if it ever happens again, he will be imprisoned.”
Nicolas Andrey Santos Florez escaped imprisonment with the judge, Crown and defence agreeing he had a history of drug use which led to psychosis and a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Judge Tom Gilbert said he had a starting point of three years' jail which he had reduced to two and a half years because of mental illness.
A psychiatrist had said Santos Florez was suffering from schizophrenia which had been developing since 2019.
Judge Gilbert said the psychiatrist said schizophrenia had affected the defendant’s ability to make clear and logical decisions, he was hearing voices at times.
“The psychiatrist makes those points because that affects how much blame can be attached to you,” Judge Gilbert said to Santos Florez.
“The prosecution accepts that report and I also have to accept it, the other thing the psychiatrist says is that sending you to prison would be extremely harmful to you because of your personal circumstances, so that explains why I reduced the starting point from three years to two and a half years.”
Judge Gilbert said he was then required by law to give some credit for accepting responsibility and pleading guilty, which equated to 15%.
“The law also requires me to take into account your young age which requires another 15%, so when I do the maths, the end point comes down to 21 months.”
Because that was under two years, the judge said he needed to consider home detention.
Since the sentencing indication, Judge Gilbert said he had received some more information, including an updated victim impact statement, which showed the victim had been impacted “very significantly”.
“It has affected lots of different parts of her life, it is important you understand that she wants the whole process to be over with so she can try and move on.”
Judge Gilbert said he had received a pre-sentence report, which assessed Santos Florez as low risk.
Since the incident he had engaged well with mental health services and had started to understand that previous drug use had been a key reason for his schizophrenia, the judge said.
A refugee from Colombia
Judge Gilbert told Santos Florez that he had good family support, he had come to New Zealand as a refugee from Colombia in 2014, and had stopped using cannabis since his arrest.
“Ordinarily when someone is convicted of sexual violation, the law says they should be sent to jail, but the law says that can be overcome due to the personal circumstances of the offender, or the offending.
“In my view the key thing is your mental health, there is clear evidence that your psychotic disorder contributed to this offending and your mental health issues means prison would be particularly difficult for you.
“Because of those reasons I agree with the Crown, your lawyer and the pre-sentence report writer that the appropriate sentence is home detention for 10 and a half months.”
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 HC Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of Cook Islands News.
