Opetaia Matagi was today jailed for 12 years during sentencing in the High Court at Wellington on a raft of sex charges, including against his adopted daughter. Photo / 123rf
Warning: This story includes details of sexual offending and may upset some readers.
A man who abused his adoptive daughter went on to abuse another woman decades later – then told her he was a good man and didn’t deserve to die in jail.
But the 82-year-old may not have a choice after being sentenced in the High Court at Wellington today.
“The practical reality is that given your age and the state of your health, this is a life sentence or close to a life sentence for you,” Justice Victoria Heine told Opetaia Matagi, while sentencing him on a raft of sex charges, which even his lawyer acknowledged was a “ghastly and terrible case”.
Matagi earlier admitted 17 charges, including sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, attempted sexual violation, sexual violation by rape, and knowingly making an objectionable publication.
The High Court heard Matagi offered his young, adopted daughter, Uputaua Ioapo-Peniata, who thought he was her biological father, tinned peaches and later sausage rolls as inducements for sexually abusing her.
The rapes and abuse, which began in the family home but later continued in the family car, continued for about seven years.
On one occasion, he blacked out the windows with black rubbish bags and filmed the rape, saying that if he did that, he wouldn’t have to do it again.
When it was over, he thanked Ioapo-Peniata, telling her, “I’ll be better”, but the abuse continued.
Matagi told Ioapo-Peniata, who was about 7 when the abuse started, that she was a good daughter and this was how a father showed his love.
But as she got older, he threatened to hurt loved ones if she told anyone.
Matagi’s offending came to light in 2004 when Ioapo-Peniata confided some of his offending to her mother.
As a result, Matagi was jailed for seven years after admitting two charges of rape.
Today, Ioapo-Peniata said she wouldn’t have been standing in court this week had Matagi not offended against another woman.
His offending against the woman gave her the courage to come forward and disclose the full extent of abuse she suffered as a child, which resulted in further charges relating to her.
The court heard the abuse against his second victim happened two decades later when Matagi offended against a young woman he knew.
The court heard he walked into her room, closed her curtains and told her to sit on the bed. She complied.
He told the woman he wanted to “make love” to her, which confused and shocked her.
The woman resisted, but Matagi ripped her shirt and raped her.
Afterwards, he told her she was a “slut” who’d been sleeping with “heaps and heaps” of men.
He told her: “Women always betray me, and they always cheat.”
Worried she would tell someone, he told her, he was a “good man” who didn’t deserve to die in jail.
He accused her of saying he’d been to prison before, which she denied. Matagi was subsequently arrested by the police.
But the court heard that while in jail for raping his adopted daughter, Matagi undertook a sex offender programme, as well as another he did while living in the community.
Matagi claimed the programmes gave him empathy and insight into his offending.
But the court heard Matagi told one report writer his first victim should be happy because she’d got a church course out of it, while his second victim was a professional woman who would get over it.
Justice Heine concluded he didn’t understand the long-lasting consequences for either of his victims.
Today, Ioapo-Peniata read out her victim impact statement to the court, which she wanted referred to as a survivor’s statement, after her automatic name suppression was lifted.
She said offending, at the hands of someone she trusted, had significantly impacted her life.
“It has left me with deep feelings of shame, isolation and powerlessness that have stayed with me into my adulthood.”
She had spent most of her life not wanting to be a rape victim, but now, as an adult, she understood the depths of trauma and how it had impacted her.
The effects of abuse did not end in childhood, but had been lifelong, she told the court.
She asked Justice Heine to consider the lasting physical and emotional harm caused by Matagi, the length of the offending and the fact she had carried it with her for many years.
At the end, Justice Heine acknowledged Ioapo-Peniata’s bravery, saying it was clear she was a strong and resilient woman.
She also acknowledged the second victim, whose statement wasn’t read out in court, saying she now lived in a constant state of anxiety and hoped to one day find her bravery again.
At sentencing, Justice Heine had to decide whether to impose a finite sentence or preventive detention.
Crown prosecutor Nicole Jamieson urged the judge to impose preventive detention, referring to reports from a clinical psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist, which said Matagi continued to pose a risk of reoffending, despite his age.
One noted there had been an escalation in his offending.
Jamieson submitted that the aggravating features in the case included the victims’ vulnerability, breach of trust, harm to the victims, the degree of planning and premeditation and the level of associated violence and detention.
In the case of Ioapo-Peniata, there was also a power dynamic in the household and her age.
The Crown sought a starting point of 18 years’ jail, while Matagi’s lawyer Chris Nicholls suggested one of 17 years.
In mitigation, Nicholls opposed a sentence of preventive detention, saying his client would be “incredibly old” when considered for parole.
He referred to his client’s significant health issues, including heart and kidney problems, migraines, vertigo and industrial deafness.
Since his incarceration, he was sleeping one or two hours a night, had lost weight and had thoughts of suicide.
“The reality is the court can’t ignore the fact this man will die in prison before the Parole Board considers him,” Nicholls said.
But Nicholls told the court the only “small light at the end of a very long, dark and bleak tunnel” was his client’s willingness to undertake further treatment.
In imposing her sentence Justice Heine said Matagi’s offending against the two women was sickening and horrific, adding his sense of entitlement was alarming.
She also noted he had five convictions for offending against his two wives.
On eight charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, five charges of sexual violation by rape, two charges of indecent assault, and single charges of knowingly making an objectionable publication and attempted sexual violation, the judge imposed a finite sentence of 12 years and eight months’ jail with a minimum period of imprisonment of six years and four months’ jail.
She declined to impose a sentence of preventive detention.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.