Mohammed Aziz has been sentenced in the Nelson District Court to nine years in prison for raping a teenage girl twice weekly for almost six years. Photo / Tracy Neal
Warning: This story refers to rape and sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
A teenage girl who sought a shoulder to cry on after breaking up with her boyfriend was then raped by the man consoling her.
The moment was a turning point in the teen’s life, which for almost six years had been blackened by the rapes committed regularly by Mohammed Aziz.
The 57-year-old was sentenced in the Nelson District Court today to nine years in jail on a representative charge of rape and a charge of possession of an objectionable publication.
He was charged after returning to New Zealand more than a year after fleeing when police began an investigation.
Judge Tony Snell cut him little slack in the sternly delivered sentence watched by the victim while embraced in the hug of a support person.
“I can say little more than you have physically and psychologically harmed her in the worst ways possible,” Judge Snell said.
“It’s harm that will go on and on for years to come.”
The teen’s support person said in a victim impact statement she read to the court, that she hoped the teen could look back on this day as a monument to her incredible courage.
It followed the teen’s own statement, in which she described the deep, ongoing trauma, and what it was like being a child “tip-toeing through landmines”, always holding her breath.
“I learned how to read a room before I learned to read a book,” she said..
Aziz stifled sobs from where he sat nearby in the dock, listening to the teen speak of the grief at having lost the person she might have become.
“Your body remembers what your mind tries to forget.
“Some days I don’t feel like a person – just a body moving through the hours,” she said.
The court heard the girl was upset she had broken up with her boyfriend and confided in Aziz, a man known to her, about what had happened.
He suggested they go to a room to talk about it further, to prevent others from hearing.
As she sat on a bed, she told him how sad and heartbroken she was.
He comforted her by hugging her and rubbing her back, then removed her clothing and raped her.
Later that evening the teen emailed her school teacher, asking him if she could talk to him about something “serious and important”.
The police were notified and she disclosed historical sexual violations, later confirmed as having occurred regularly for almost six years.
She also told police Aziz had taken pictures and videos of her in the shower.
Days later, as the victim’s mother messaged the man, he told her he had “found naked images of the victim” in a folder in his phone.
After his home was searched in April 2024, he gave a statement to the police but denied any sexual activity took place.
He provided a DNA sample to police, but the next day he drove to Christchurch and left the country.
Clothing worn by the victim at the time of the offending was seized and subsequently forensically examined.
Aziz’s DNA was found on the clothing and on the victim after a medical examination.
He was arrested at Auckland Airport on his return in August 2025, more than a year after he fled, Crown prosecutor Sophie O’Donoghue said.
“This was a long period of absence in which he prioritised his own needs,” she said.
The Crown, in seeking a 12-year prison starting point, pointed to the frequency of rapes over a long time and the ongoing premeditation involved.
O’Donoghue said Aziz was not entitled to any discount for remorse because he had minimised what occurred and insulted the victim by claiming he had raped her “only once”.
She said Aziz said in a pre-sentence report he intended to undertake rehabilitation, but his comments to the report writer “had not scratched the surface of the offending”.
Defence lawyer Amanda Godwin achieved the 25% discount sought for Aziz’s guilty plea, which spared the victim from a trial.
She said Aziz wanted to engage in a sex offender’s rehabilitation programme, had expressed shame and insight into the harm caused to the victim, and had returned to New Zealand to face the charges.
Judge Snell refused to accept a causal connection between Aziz’s offending and claims he had been raised in an environment where he suffered abuse.
“Can you explain how something which happened 40 years earlier coincided with him repeatedly raping this girl?” he asked.
Judge Snell said in setting a 12-year prison starting point that Aziz’s possession of the objectionable material was an aggravating factor, and he was sentenced to nine months in prison for that, to be served concurrently.
He declined any discount for the potential impact of imprisonment on Aziz’s child.
Judge Snell said Aziz had no hesitation abandoning the child when he fled New Zealand.
While he may not be able to have any relationship with the child in the foreseeable future, “that does not appear to be a bad thing”, Judge Snell said.
He said in arriving at a nine-year prison term, the 25% discount for Aziz’s guilty plea was “generous”.
A protection order sought by the victim was granted and Aziz was automatically registered as a child sex offender.
His release date would be set by the Parole Board.
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.