The pair appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on Tuesday by Judge Thomas Ingram who said he couldn’t imagine “the terror (she) must have felt that night”.
“She was given no choice ... she was not respected as a human being,” he told them.
Taiapa, 36, and Daniels-Rongonui, 26, admitted charges of rape and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection midway during their trial - but before the victim had to give evidence - last month.
Judge Ingram agreed to give them a 15% discount for their pleas as it saved the victim from having to relive her ordeal, along with 20% for background factors and drug addiction, before jailing them both for nine years and nine months.
‘Why do you have to tutu me?’
Neither of the men knew the victim, who was visiting Hamilton in October 2022.
Taiapa and Daniels-Rongonui turned up to the Ashwood Manor motel and told the victim and her cousin that they were using the room and to go and clean it up.
When inside, they told the victim’s older cousin to go outside to see if the police were coming.
It was then Daniels-Rongonui asked the victim if she showered before one of the men pulled out a glass pipe and started smoking meth. Asked if she wanted some, the girl said no, and asked again by Daniels-Rongonui, she again said no, before he said if she didn’t have any he would “stab [her] in the face”.
They then told her to get on the bed and take her pants off but she refused. They then swore at her before the victim’s nan came into the room.
Shortly afterwards the pair left but Taiapa returned about midnight and forced the girl to smoke cannabis.
Taiapa then started talking about threesomes but the girls said “they don’t do that stuff around here”.
The victim’s cousin got up and went to the bathroom before Taiapa asked if he could sexually assault her.
She said no, before saying “why do you have to tutu me, I’m only 14, do you know how old you are?”
She started moving away from him, and he said if she wouldn’t let him he would stab both of them.
When he was about to rape her the victim said she was a virgin, and he replied, “yea all good”, and as she protested he said, “f*** up you dirty b****”.
After an approximate two-hour ordeal, Taiapa left, but about 4am, Daniels-Rongonui turned up and also raped her before leaving about 20 minutes later.
‘There’s going to be life-long issues for her'
In discussion about a jail starting point with Taiapa’s counsel, Fraser King, Judge Ingram said there’s “going to be life-long trust issues for her with all men”.
King tried to urge the judge to go with a nine-year start point plus an extra year for the second charge, but Judge Ingram wasn’t interested.
“Both men helped themselves to simply more than two rapes they took part in, there was a series of indignities,” the judge said.
Daniels-Rongonui’s counsel Jaron Keung spoke about the home invasion aspect and said the defendants were let in to the room but the pair “took advantage of that obviously”.
His client had a large criminal history but nothing for sexual offending.
‘Flaunting your Mongrel Mob association’
Before handing down his sentence, Judge Ingram also took the opportunity to praise the work Daniels-Rongonui’s former counsel Peter Kaye did for his client before he died in November last year.
“I wish to express that Mr Kaye’s role in this appears, on the face of it, particularly significant.”
The judge then told the men the circumstances of their offending were “serious”.
“It involved two men of your age and size and there’s a Mongrel Mob connection and you were obviously flaunting your Mongrel Mob association.
“All of this led to circumstances which she was simply unable to do anything other than what she was told.”
He told them the victim will “suffer for the rest of her days for what happened on that particular night”.
However, he also noted the reports prepared about both defendants’ upbringing, which “both clearly indicate that you have both had very difficult starts in life”.
He saw no reason to distinguish the jail sentence between the pair as they were “both good friends, and were there together ... to have sex with this (girl) whether she wanted it or not”.
While the crown suggested a 10 to 11-year start point, Judge Ingram went further and took a 12-year term then uplifted a further three years to recognise numerous aggravating factors and the “callous” nature of what they did.
After jailing the pair, he urged them both to stop “wasting the life that you have been given” by spending most of their time behind bars.
The Crown is expected to file an application to confiscate the gang patch and gang jersey which was worn during the offending.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.
