Tauranga man Joshua Oliver revealed as man who sexually violated woman after work function

Warning: This story deals with details of sexual assault and may be upsetting.

The identity of a man who violated a woman after a work party can finally be revealed - and his victim is sending a message to those who commit sexual violence.

“Your actions are destructive, selfish and completely inexcusable,” she said as Tauranga man Joshua Oliver abandoned his pursuit for ongoing name suppression.

“You harm not only your victims and everyone around them, but also your own family and life when you’re caught.”

Joshua Oliver was sentenced to six years' and three months' imprisonment for the sexual violation of a woman. Photo / Hannah Bartlett

Oliver was found guilty by a jury on a charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection but couldn’t be named until now due to a suppression order.

The woman he abused said in her victim impact statement that his attack was “one of the most extreme violations a person can endure”.

During a trial earlier this year, the court heard there had been a work event at the Tauranga races.

A group had gone to a house following the event and the victim, who was connected to the workplace and was friends with the homeowner, said she had been having a good time catching up with longstanding friends and people she had just met.

Joshua Oliver was found guilty by a jury on a charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection but couldn’t be named until now due to a suppression order.

She had been very drunk and struggled to remember large parts of the evening.

The woman went to bed in one of the spare rooms but said she woke in the early hours to the man “forcefully” violating her.

She went back to sleep after telling him to “Get the f*** off me”, but said when she woke later that morning and went to the bathroom, she had felt sore.

She looked in the bathroom mirror and thought, “What the f***, has this really happened?”

At the man’s sentencing, she told the judge the physical and emotional aftermath had been severe – she had not been able to sit comfortably in the days following the attack and was in pain as she drove to the police station and attended medical examinations.

Oliver had been seeking permanent name suppression for reasons that cannot be reported. His application was declined by Judge Bill Lawson on November 1 and Oliver’s counsel indicated the judge’s ruling would be appealed.

Joshua Oliver was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court.

However, the Tauranga District Court registry confirmed the appeal had been abandoned and his interim suppression lapsed.

The woman he attacked told NZME, following the lapse of name suppression, that she wanted to send a message to those who commit sexual violence about the impact their actions had on others.

She said survivors of sexual violence were “speaking out”, the world was changing, and offenders could not “escape accountability”.

Oliver was sentenced at the start of November to six years’ and three months’ imprisonment and was ordered to pay $2500 for emotional harm.

The woman told the judge his actions had affected her life, and her family, immensely.

“This has robbed our kids of precious time with their mother,” she said.

“Once very involved with their schooling and activities, I’m now rarely able to pick them up or drop them off at school.”

They had lost the “carefree, happy mother they once knew” as she sometimes struggled to get out of bed and was in constant fear for their safety.

“They wake me at night, scared and needing reassurance, only to find a mother who herself is terrified from being woken.”

It had affected her relationship with her husband as the “joy of [their] connection has been overshadowed by these painful memories of being raped”.

“I know this has affected him immensely. It is not easy to live knowing that another man has violated your wife in such a hideous way.”

The woman said the trial had been retraumatising, but she had wanted to ensure Oliver never did something like this again.

During the trial, she said she had been very drunk on the night she was violated, and couldn’t remember large portions of the evening.

She had been shown to a bedroom, and effectively passed out, before she awoke to the man “forcefully” violating her.

Judge Lawson told Oliver the woman had been in an environment where she was entitled to feel safe.

“You were both escorted to separate rooms and she was entitled to expect that she would remain in that room free from any interference or contact from you,” he said.

“You took advantage of her vulnerability. You seriously penetrated her ... while she was sleeping, or blacked out. You held her in place to allow that to occur.”

Judge Lawson also took into account Oliver’s letter of remorse, however.

“It makes it clear that you accept that you have offended in this way against the victim, and you accept that you have caused physical and emotional trauma to her.”

The judge gave a 5% discount for remorse, off a starting point of seven years’ and four months’ imprisonment.

“Your expression of remorse identifies that you have thought this through ... You have accepted that your behaviour was the cause of significant impact on the victim.

“Very often in cases like this, we find the victims left in a state of doubt because the defendants maintain their innocence and do not accept the verdict. Here you have accepted what you have done.”

Oliver also offered an emotional harm repayment of $2500. The judge said that while that couldn’t repay the financial loss the woman and her family had suffered, it did represent a manifestation of the remorse expressed.

Oliver was also given a 10% discount for background factors.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.