However, today Judge Bergseng told Auckland District Court he had discovered an error had been made when he was working on another case last week.
He told the court that under Section 15b of the Sentencing Act no court can impose a home detention sentence if the offender was aged under 18 at the time and the offence was not a category three offence where the maximum sentence is 14 years, or it is a category four offence.
Judge Bergseng therefore sentenced the pair to 12 months intensive supervision and said they would need to comply with counselling and rehabilitation if it is imposed by their probation officer.
Crown prosecutor Robin McCoubrey had argued the pair should be sentenced to a period of community detention and intensive supervision.
Lawyer Annabel Cresswell, representing one of the men, advocated for supervision and Tiffany Buckley, acting for the other man, argued for supervision or for him to be convicted and discharged.
Police said the offending against one victim happened between late 2012 and early 2013 and involved a girl aged 14 at the time. Both men were 16 at the time.
The duo were among multiple suspects who were investigated by police in 2014 as a result of the scandal. More than 100 girls were identified as having had social contact with the group and five made formal complaints to detectives, but no charges were laid until 2020.
The two defendants first appeared in court in December 2020 and were immediately granted name suppression. Police filed a second charge months later, after they said another victim who had made previous complaints against the men expressed a desire to be part of the prosecution.
Details of the offending, which happened in 2012 and 2013, revealed the first victim contacted police in 2020 saying she was ready to give evidence.
She had met the first defendant, then 17, at school when she was 14.
They exchanged phone numbers and started texting each other.
The defendant, aware of the victim’s age, invited her to meet him and two other teenage boys, one of whom is the second defendant, at a garage space that had been converted into a bedroom.
Over several months in late 2012 and early 2013, the young girl was made to perform sexual acts with the trio at this address when they were intoxicated.
The victim recalled being unable to get her shoes on one occasion, and was told by the first defendant he would give her the shoe if she gave him a “blowjob”. She left the address that day wearing her socks.
The defendants also filmed two incidents - something the victim said she was unaware of until after people told her they had seen the video.
A second victim, also 14 at the time, met the defendants in 2013 at a fast food restaurant before she went back to the garage with them.
She told police she knew she would lose her virginity that evening and had agreed to sex with the first defendant, but not to anal sex or a threesome, which was what happened.
She suffered physical injuries but did not seek medical treatment.
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
