Mohamed Abdnur and Senith Deliwala Gedara were sentenced in the Wellington District Court.
WARNING: This story contains details of sexual offending
A night out for a woman ended with her being raped by three men as she drifted in and out of consciousness in a drug and alcohol addled state.
When she became aware of what was happening, she fought off her attackers by punching and “bottling” one of the men, and attempting to throw another off a balcony.
But the woman’s fight did not stop that night.
For the almost four years that have followed, her life has fallen apart as she has struggled to cope with the aftermath of the traumatic experience.
Now, she has come face to face with two of her rapists to tell them of her living hell that they created.
“You took everything from me, but what you did not take from me was my voice,” she said in an emotional victim impact statement delivered to the Wellington District Court.
“Today, I use it to speak the truth about the harm you guys have caused, the path that you have altered and the justice that I deserve.”
At the recent sentencing of Mohamed Abdnur and Senith Deliwala Gedara, the court heard the woman, who has automatic name suppression, was out drinking one evening in June 2021 with an acquaintance in Wellington.
The pair met up with three men whom they did not previously know and consumed alcohol and MDMA.
Later, the night ended for the group at an apartment where the woman went into a bedroom to sleep.
But she was soon woken by Abdnur, who had come into the room and begun raping her.
Her skirt had been pulled up and her bike shorts and underwear pulled down, and Abdnur slapped her face while demanding that she wake up.
A second man, Tyias Moke, then entered the room and raped the woman.
At this point, Deliwala Gedara walked in and turned on the light, but Moke told him to turn it off because the light exposed his bottom.
Deliwala Gedara also raped the woman, who was drifting in and out of consciousness as a result of the alcohol and drugs.
However, there were moments during the attacks when she was able to call out for help and ask for the men to stop.
When the victim properly woke, she “saw red”.
She punched and “bottled” Abdnur and attempted to throw Deliwala Gedara from the apartment’s balcony.
Hours later, she was subjected to an intrusive medical examination where every bruise and mark was noted.
Events that night have affected every aspect of the victim’s life.
She told the court that she had been left serving a lifetime sentence “in a prison of my own trauma”.
The victim has been diagnosed with PTSD and depression, which she described as “suffocating”, and has suffered nightmares.
“Flashbacks would hijack my mind at random moments, paralysing me,” she said.
She became a prisoner in her own home, unable to drop her children at school or go grocery shopping.
Her mental health became so bad that, at one point, she said her family had to have her sectioned.
She lost her job and was forced to rely on Government assistance, which she said barely “scratched the surface”.
Within a year, she and her children moved into emergency accommodation because she was no longer able to afford a rental property.
It was a stark contrast to her life before she was raped.
Previously, she didn’t live week to week or worry about the costs of food or petrol. She and her children travelled during school holidays, and birthdays were a time of joy.
Now, she said her children’s lives were filled with uncertainty and hardship.
They were left with a mother who was physically present but emotionally absent, she said.
At a point when she felt she was able to push the attacks to the back of her mind and move forward with her life, she had to testify last year at Abdnur and Deliwala Gedara’s trial, at which they were found guilty.
Moke had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of rape and was sentenced in January to four years and six months’ imprisonment.
At the trial, the victim said she was cross-examined for days.
She felt her friendly nature was used against her and her choice of clothing was criticised.
“As if what I wore that night held any relevance to the brutality I suffered,” she said.
At Abdnur and Deliwala Gedara’s sentencing, Judge Nicola Wills acknowledged the woman’s bravery in reading her “eloquent and intelligent” statement.
The judge said it was clear the events of that night had caused her significant and ongoing impacts.
She offered a blunt assessment of the men’s actions.
“Your offending was opportunistic, sexual violation without thought for her feelings at all.
“It really defies belief.”
Crown prosecutor Janielee Avia highlighted the aggravating factors, including that it was a group attack.
She didn’t accept the defence submission that, because Abdnur had raped the woman first, he didn’t know what the others were going to do.
All of the defendants were equally culpable, she said.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Carrie Parkin submitted that Abdnur should receive a credit for background factors, emphasising how his early years in Somalia were marred by violence.
He had no support when he arrived in New Zealand as a refugee at 17.
Parkin submitted that Abdnur would have benefited from a cultural report, but it wasn’t possible given the financial constraints on the legal aid system.
She also argued for discounts for her client’s youth, being 21 at the time of the offending, and remorse, pointing to an apology letter he had written to the victim.
But Judge Wills said the letter didn’t tally with comments he had made in a report prepared for sentencing.
“You were still victim blaming or denying your offending. That sits uncomfortably with a short letter expressing your remorse,” she said, declining him credit for that aspect.
The judge accepted Abdnur’s background had links to his offending, and his young age.
She weighed that against the aggravating factors, including the victim’s vulnerability and harm caused, before landing on an end sentence of six years’ imprisonment.
Deliwala Gedara was being sentenced for the rape as well as admitted charges of making intimate visual recordings and failing to provide police with the personal identification number to his phone.
The 76 recordings were made at two hotels in Wellington and a fast-food restaurant between 2020 and 2022.
He filmed women going to the toilet and taking showers.
Defence lawyer David Rohorua argued for discounts for Deliwala Gedara’s youth and background factors.
Judge Wills adopted a starting point of 7.5 years for the rape charge before applying an uplift for the additional charges and previous convictions.
Deliwala Gedar, who was 25 at the time of the rape, was jailed for eight years, after a small discount was given for his personal circumstances.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
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