The “predatory” rapist brothers behind a long-running campaign of drink spiking and sexual assaults at Christchurch bar Mama Hooch have been sentenced to some of the most significant prison terms ever handed down for such offending.
Roberto Jaz has been sentenced to 17 years behind bars for offending against eight women.
Danny Jaz has been sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in prison for drugging and or violating 19 women.
And they have been ordered to serve a minimum of half of their sentences before they are eligible for parole.
“The level of your offending is unknown in this country ... you helped yourself to young women with callous disregard for their rights and their dignity,” said Judge Paul Mabey.
The men were handed their fate after a long day in court where nine survivors of their “disgusting” crimes read emotional but powerful impact statements.
Danny, 40, and Roberto, 38, were convicted of 69 charges between them including rape, sexual violation, indecent assault, stupefying, disabling, making intimate recordings of women without their knowledge or consent and supplying illicit drugs.
The Australian-born brothers were described by Judge Mabey as “arrogant” and “entitled”.
Today, neither showed any sign - at all - of emotion.
They sat in the dock side-by-side stony-faced and unmoved by anything said to or about them.
Danny Jaz sported a black eye.
The courtroom was packed with survivors and their supporters along with police who worked on the investigation into the brothers, dubbed Operation Sinatra.
A second courtroom was allocated for further survivors and supporters with a live audio-visual link to the sentencing.
The sex-offending siblings’ brother Davide Jaz is present in court - the first time anyone has attended a hearing to support them.
Among the women set to read their impact statements are the main victims - the former Mama Hooch staffer the brothers were convicted of raping and the two then-18-year-olds whose complaint to police sparked the chain of events that led to today’s sentencing.
The first woman to read her statement said she met Danny Jaz at Mama Hooch and felt he was someone she could trust.
“I was so confused how it went so wrong that night,” she said
“Emotionally this experience has completely rewired my brain… this is something I will carry for life.
“Danny, you have damaged me. My outlook on life is skewed because of what you thought you were entitled to - my body and my choices.
“We have waited so long to tell our story, have our validation and have our justice… Knowing that no other woman will ever be in danger of the Jaz brothers was my purpose.”
The woman told the court that her experience has made her rethink her career path.
She now wants to join the police.
“I want to protect and support anyone who finds themselves in my position,” she said.
“I want to fight for women, fight for them to be believed, fight for them to be safe in our cities and towns.”
“When the offending happened, I remember feeling all sorts of emotions, feeling numb, shock was one, shocked that I couldn’t believe what had just happened,” she said.
“To this day, I’m still struggling.”
She has suffered from depression and been on medication on and off since the attack.
“This process has been tough - mentally and physically draining... The offending against me has changed me. I struggle with it. I’m fearful and vigilant.
She turned to Danny Jaz and said: “I feel utterly sad for you.”
Brown , who waived her right to automatic and permanent name suppression, told the court that her assault led to “some of the darkest days” of her life and for a long time she feared being alone.
“The times when I couldn’t deceive myself into believing nothing had happened, I was filled with sadness, shame, embarrassment, fear, emptiness.
“I searched for constant distraction, which has even sometimes meant self-sabotaging my life to live in chaos in order to avoid the silence,” she said.
“You stole my fierce independence from me. You stole my right to feel safe in my own mind from me. And you stole my right to autonomy over my own body away from me.”
Brown acknowledged Danny Jaz had a young daughter and turned to him to deliver powerful words.
“She’ll be 19 one day, and you’ve made sure that she continues to live in a world where women are exploited,” she said.
“She continues to live in a world full of men like you who believe women owe you the privilege of access to their own bodies, irrespective of whether she wants to or not.
“She continues to live in a world where the chances of her encountering a man like you are one in four.”
While Brown still struggled with her attack, she refused to let Danny Jaz ruin her life.
“Don’t assume you’re anything more than worthless,” she told him.
“I’m still a confident tenacious and strong woman who will continue to rise miles above you because I deserve a happy and meaningful life - the opposite of what you deserve.”
“This has made me feel so vulnerable,” she said
“I’ve often taken pride in the fact that I’ve never taken recreational drugs. That has always been my personal choice to never take them. I was so deeply disappointed this choice was taken without my permission.
“This has been very frightening for me. This has caused me a significant amount of stress by the loss of power over my body.
“The feeling of injustice, indescribable.”
“In the aftermath of the events, I experienced immense mental disarray and emotional distress,” she said.
“At the time I was living alone and felt isolated and terrified, grappling with intrusive thoughts and panic attacks for a prolonged period. Eating and sleeping became challenging and my mental health deteriorated to the point where the police were called to my residence due to concerns for my well-being.
She said she suffered panic attacks that left her feeling “suffocated and unable to breathe”.
“The long-term impact on my mental health and well-being has been severe.
“I am sceptical and fearful of others frequently, hypervigilant about my surroundings and the people I encounter.
“I have a general lack of trust and often feel unsafe, which has had a long-term effect on my ability to grow and maintain relationships with others.”
“This experience has made me question everything that I thought I knew,” she said.
“I feel apprehensive and on edge. When there are males around me I am constantly checking to ensure no one is standing too close so that they could drive more drugs.
“I feel I’m hypervigilant now… this is not only extremely tiring but also has taken the joy and happiness I used to experience in socialising with my friends.
“I question every situation I’m in and try and ensure that I am never caught in this kind of situation.”
The woman told the court she had never taken drugs and was gutted that the choice had been taken from her by the Jaz brothers.
“What was done to me was not only a cowardly act, but it also took away my decision about what I want to do myself.
“Danny, you made me feel violated... You made me feel uncomfortable around men I don’t know and I question every man.
“You made me feel stupid that I trusted you. I thought that you were a normal nice guy, but you took advantage of that.
“You made me feel scared to be a female with your intentions and actions.”
Katherine - not her real name - was one of the women who sparked the police investigation into the Jaz brothers.
“It is extremely difficult for me to describe to you what I think and what I feel towards what you’ve done,” Katherine said.
She explained that she started working for the Jaz family at one of their hospitality venues when she was 15.
She trusted the Jaz brothers and said she felt “confident and comfortable” - moving into more hours of employment each week as she got older.
“I was supposed to be safe around you, but your intentions were distorted,” she said.
“I had no reason not to trust you. I did nothing wrong.”
She said the trauma of the night of the attack was only the beginning of her ordeal.
“What you did set an example, a twisted perception of what nightlife can be,” Katherine told her attacker.
“You implanted a fear in me… I lived in fear of seeing you… I went through a phase of paranoia.
“You chose to harm hundreds of people who have been affected, not just one.
“What you did to me and to all the, all the other survivors will stay with me for life.”
“The event was 2018, 3 days after my 18th birthday, I was targeted by a predator,” said Penny after her friend finished giving her statement.
“What this man did to me was violent.
“It’s a disgusting act performed on a young, helpless teenage girl who was unable to consent that night.
“He took my innocence when he decided to violate my innocent young body.”
Penny said her trauma was intensified because she had to watch her friend get assaulted - powerless to stop what was happening.
“He knew that the drug would incapacitate us so he could do whatever he wanted to us - getting his twisted sexual pleasures and violent pleasures out of us,” she said.
“I still have some memory of the events - it’s affected me so greatly, it haunts me every day, but over the years, I’ve been learning how to cope.
“You left me feeling like a man will always hurt me. I always feel like I’m nothing - like that feeling I got when you left me laying on the floor or in the booth.”
She turned to Roberto Jaz and directed a powerful message at him.
“Now you have no power over me,” she said.
“Who will you become now, apart from a serial sex offender with your name out there for the crimes that you have committed.
“Knowing that is a liberating feeling for us, all that stand against you.”
“I was 21 years old. I had just graduated... I was excited about the future,” she said.
“I was an outgoing person with an openness to meeting new people, visiting new places and an eagerness to create and establish an independent lifestyle.
“In April 2017, my whole world changed... I was drugged, raped, violated and filmed by two men who I considered to be my employers.
“After the assault... Every time I got into the shower or changed clothes and looked down at my body, I was reminded of the night that you chose to take my autonomy away from me.
“I remember getting in the shower the next day and scrubbing my skin hoping that the repulsive feeling I could wash away.
“I found myself left with emotional injuries that would only increase in severity.
“The longer the time went on, my body didn’t feel like mine anymore. I went from somebody who liked who I was to someone who was repulsed with what I saw in the mirror.
“It got so bad that I contemplated taking my life more than once and started thinking of the least painful ways to go.”
She said the sex offending siblings had harmed her “physically, emotionally, psychologically” and “robbed” her of her right to self-love.
“You took away my trust and you took away my right to live as a young carefree woman without fear,” she said.
“After the incident, I broke the hearts of my mother, my father, my brothers, my friends in telling them what you did to me - and not once have you taken any accountability for what you’ve done.
‘But I need to make it very clear that despite all of this, you didn’t take anything from me that I haven’t recovered from in great strides.
“I have regained so much after what you did. I have retaught myself to love and feel love.... Despite my scars, I am so loved and supported... I can finally say that I feel this dark cloud clearing.”
The woman thanked the police who she said “worked countless hours fighting for justice, for myself and others” and the Crown Prosecutors who “ensure I felt as calm as possible in such an intimidating environment”.
“They have worked incredibly hard to hold these men accountable,” she said.
She told the rapists:
“This incident will not be who I am - and my trauma is not who I am.
“You are not a part of who I am and you can’t make a difference anymore.”
Crown Prosecutor Andrew McRae sought a term of 18 to 20 years in prison for each of the Jaz brothers.
He noted Judge Mabey KC’s description of the men in his verdict decision.
In the 169-page judgement, he said Danny and Roberto Jaz had an “arrogant, entitled and hubristic approach” to young women who came within their orbit and were “indifferent to their rights and indifferent to consent”.
“During the conduct of their business at Mama Hooch hose women were seen as fair game - with the defendants being indifferent to consent and indifferent to the rights of the women, the brave survivors,” McRae said.
“The Crown say that this is sustained predatory behaviour, where the defendants used their business premises, really as a way to target the vulnerable.
“Those patrons were entitled to the trust - for all intents and purposes - of the people that were running the bar, at any given time.
‘That trust was essentially destroyed for the defendant’s own self-interest.”
McRae said the offenders used social media messaging “across a, a wide friend group” to “brag about their exploits”.
“It essentially encouraged them to have greater and greater levels of brazenness in relation to their offending.
“And that was completely without any consideration of the consent or of the willingness of their victims.”
He said the offending had “major” effects on each survivor.
“And indeed, it was only through the courage of those survivors that the true scale of what had been going on at the bar and at, at the neighbouring restaurant... were brought to light,” McRae told the court.
“The offending occurred over a relatively lengthy period of time... and even as we look at it today, five years on, there’s really no real appreciation from the defendants in terms of the effects of the offending upon those survivors upon those of those victims.
“There’s no real remorse. There’s no insight into the behaviours that actually caused the offending.”
Judge Mabey began the formal part of the sentencing exercise after the lunch break.
He said Roberto Jaz offended against eight women and Danny Jaz was convicted of drugging and or violating 19 women.
In four cases the women and both men were involved in the offending.
The judge first spoke about the impact on the survivors.
“You should both be a no doubt that you’ve severely damaged all of your victims by your predatory and heartless offending, driven by arrogance, misguided self-belief, and a complete lack of respect for the rights of those you’ve offended against, he said.
“The statements read in court and the ones that I have separately read have a similar theme - young women enjoying life are now even after so many years, anxious, fearful and having flashbacks, some have even had to leave Christchurch.
“The consistent theme was the darkness.”
He said the damage “infiltrates” beyond the women - to their closest family and friends.
“You have seen first-hand now what you’ve done,” said the judge.
“And although neither of you has expressed any remorse or empathy or understanding or feelings - perhaps what you’ve observed today has hit home in some way. And I hope for your sake it has.”
The court heard that Danny Jaz refused to engage with pre-sentence report writers.
Engaging with the writers is not mandatory.
“Roberto Jaz made it clear he does not accept my verdicts - and chose not to discuss any of the offending,” said Judge Mabey.
“Neither of you showed any remorse.”
He said the report on Roberto Jaz showed clearly that he was a predatory offender who planned his attacks to some degree.
“Your messaging made clear of your intention towards staff and patrons,” the judge said.
“You knew of the drugs associated with sexual offending and you had those drugs, you bragged about using them.
“Both of you demonstrated through your words and your actions, the callous and predatory disregard for the young women you offended against.”
When interviewed Roberto Jaz claimed to “respect women”.
“You said you were brought up to respect people and treat them well,” said Judge Mabey.
“That may be your view of yourself - but it is a misguided view. You showed no respect to the woman who drugged and offended against over a 3.5-year period.
“If you genuinely consider yourself as someone who respects and treats people well, you will need considerable rehabilitation to bring yourself to the reality of your own character.
“Your denial of your offending and your denial of your motivation is as misguided… you lie, you minimise, you demonstrated that arrogant belief that you could talk your way out of anything.”
He said Roberto’s continued explanation that any sexual activity was “consensual” was “a fantasy”.
“It was an astounding demonstration of the hubris entitlement which ultimately led to your downfall.”
Judge Mabey said the men “heartlessly exploited” their victims.
He said while letters of support had been provided to the court from a number of people stating the brothers were “fine-hearted, decent and respectful people” - he was unconvinced.
“You are not men of good character - you are sexual predators,” he said
“Perhaps misogynistic attitudes and the patriarchal approach to life within your family may have engendered a new, an unhealthy attitude to women.
“You make conscious decisions to exploit and abuse your victims… You were men in your 30s… what occurred was a continuous course of conduct over a period of 3.5 years.”
Judge Mabey said an example of the planning that went into the offending was the rape of the Jaz brothers’ former employee.
“Your sexual interest in her was demonstrated on the day she commenced employment with you and it was a year later… that you both decided that she would be exploited for sexual purposes,” he said.
“She was vulnerable - as were all of your victims who were drugged for sexual purposes.
“Stupefication…guaranteed their vulnerabilities.
“There were other aspects of their vulnerability. They were young women, many were teenagers still growing up and working out how the world works.
“You could not care less.”
The sentencing exercise was complex given the number of victims.
Each brother was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for each violation, to be served concurrently.
Judge Mabey set a net starting point of 18 years in jail for both Danny and Roberto Jaz.
“Anything less than 18 years would not do justice,” he said.
He said while Roberto’s offences were more serious, Danny’s were more widespread.
He had more victims, more charges and he was “more active” and “more determined” in his offending.
“Your actions towards all of your victims were predatory - you were ready for the opportunity to drug patrons and then boldly and brazenly positioned yourself, having observed them, so you were alone with them,” Judge Mabey said.
“That is a particularly aggravating factor as it guarantees vulnerability - these young women simply could not fight back,” he said.
Judge Mabey said there was little credit he could give to reduce the starting points
However he could not deny the men a small reduction for guilty pleas entered and “previous good character” before they started offending.
“It was not long after Mama Hooch opened that your offending commenced,” he said.
He sentenced Roberto Jaz to 17 years in prison and Danny Jaz to 16 years and six months.
The drugging and assaults took place at Mama Hooch and Venuti - a bar and restaurant owned by their father Michael Jaz, between 2015 and 2018.
Danny Jaz was a duty bar manager at Mama Hooch and Roberto Jaz was the chef at Venuti.
Both venues have been shut down since the men were charged.
Their downfall came after two 18-year-old women went to the police and reported they had been drugged and sexually assaulted at Venuti by Roberto Jaz.
The complaint led to dozens more women coming forward and a major police investigation dubbed Operation Sinatra.
The Jaz brothers were arrested and charged in 2018 and went on trial in February this year.
They had elected trial by jury but three days before the process was set to begin they changed their position and sought trial by Judge Mabey alone.
Two other men were charged alongside the Jaz brothers. One was acquitted on all sex and drug charges except one of offering to supply a Class B drug. He was discharged without conviction. The other was acquitted on a single sexual assault charge.
Both were granted permanent name suppression.
In July Judge Mabey released a 162-page judgment with the reason for each verdict.
Throughout, he lambasts the predatory brothers saying they had a consistent and established propensity to “show a sexual interest in, and to target for sexual purposes, patrons and staff of Mama Hooch”.
Further, the siblings had an “arrogant, entitled and hubristic approach” to young women who came within their orbit and were “indifferent to their rights and indifferent to consent”.
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