He is identified in published court documents only as “Mr V”, to protect the identity of his victim. His country of origin and the location of the refugee camp where he was abused have not been disclosed.
Last year, V pleaded guilty to four charges of doing an indecent act on a young person and one of attempting to receive commercial sexual services, which related to an incident when he offered his underage stepdaughter $100 for sex.
He was also found guilty after a three-day trial in the Wellington District Court of raping his stepdaughter and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection.
The girl was aged between 11 and 13 when he abused her. Court documents said it went on “for a number of years”.
At his sentencing, V was assessed as being at a high risk of reoffending and the sentencing judge ruled there was not a lot of “actual remorse”.
But recently, V appealed his prison sentence to the High Court, seeking to introduce new evidence in the form of a cultural report which detailed his “tremendously adverse” upbringing as a refugee.
It said that he was born overseas but his family fled their home country when he was very young.
He spent four years in refugee camps before being settled in New Zealand around the age of eight.
V reported being sexually molested by an elderly man on multiple occasions in one camp.
He had sexual experiences with an older girl and men forced him and his brother to perform sexual acts on each other, the report said.
After arriving in New Zealand, V’s family struggled financially and he often went without food. He reported being verbally and physically abused by his mother during childhood.
V did not disclose anything about being abused to his lawyer until after he was sentenced. His lawyer then appealed his sentence, arguing that, given the new information, it was excessive.
“Mr V grew up in a tremendously adverse environment and it is clear that he has struggled with intense sexual urges ever since being unwillingly sexualised at a very young age,” according to Justice Christine Grice, who heard the appeal.
“In other words, I am satisfied that there is a causative contribution between Mr V’s upbringing and the offending,” she said.
However, Justice Grice said that while the new evidence about V’s background was relevant, taking other aggravating and mitigating factors into account, a sentence of nine years in prison would have been more appropriate. Which is six months more than V received.
For this reason, she declined to allow the cultural report to be offered as fresh evidence, and dismissed V’s appeal.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
