Man jailed over underage relationship

File photo / Daily Post

The "utterly tragic" consequences of a man's sexual relationship with an underage girl that led to her taking her life has seen him jailed for four years and three months.

Pelesasa Tiumalu, 28, had stood by as his wife sent abusive texts in response to ones the girl sent Tiumalu telling him she was planning to kill herself because he had terminated their four-month-long association, Judge James Weir said in Rotorua District Court today.

The 15-year-old died in hospital after her brother found her on the family's bathroom floor.

Attempts by the girl's mother to read her victim impact statement to the court were abandoned when she became too upset to continue.

"I simply can't do this," she sobbed after saying her daughter's death had had a huge impact on her, her immediate family and wider whanau.

"She went out and helped everyone no matter what their problems were. What happened to her has devastated and hurt me hard."

Tiumalu had earlier pleaded guilty to a representative charge of unlawful sexual connection with a 15-year-old between March and July last year.

The court heard he had told her parents he was 20 and had promised her father he would not have a sexual relationship with her.

"You lied...abused that position of trust...you exploited her," Judge Weir said. The consequences had been utterly tragic.

Tiumalu's wife Elina Tiumalu appeared in court in May and pleaded guilty to a charge of intimidation. She received a nine-months deferred sentence.

At her husband's sentencing his lawyer Panama Le'au'anae said never in his wildest dreams had Tiumalu anticipated what occurred.

"I accept she [the victim] sent texts saying she was considering suicide but he didn't think she was going to act on those thoughts."

Tiumalu had become involved with the victim when he was going through a troubling time and had separated from his wife.

"He got involved with this girl on the rebound and now knows it was inappropriate and unacceptable." Tiumalu, a pastor's son, had a strict Christian upbringing in Samoa and was a pastor's son.

Representing the Crown, Amanda Gordon said the pair had met at the fast-food outlet where they worked. When their relationship became intimate Tiumalu had insisted on unprotected sex which at one stage led the girl to fear she was pregnant. After a test proved negative she took some form of birth control.

When Tiumalu told her he was attempting to reconcile with his wife, the girl sent numerous texts pleading with him not to break up with her. It was texts of this nature his wife intercepted and responded to.

Outside the court Elina Tiumalu, who is six months' pregnant and the mother of Tiumalu's two-year-old daughter, said she had a lot of regrets. "I feel sorry for those texts, my emotions got the better of me, I am only human."

She said she would stick by her husband and follow him to Samoa if he was deported following his sentence.

The victim's family declined to comment.

- NZPA