After putting the underwear in the bag, he went back to the 14-year-old’s room where she lay asleep on her back.
Just after 1am, on December 3, 2024, she awoke to him lying on top of her.
His legs were on the ground, his upper body on top of her, and his head near her hip and groin area. She felt him trying to “turn her by the buttock area”.
She screamed, he ran, and the girl’s parents woke up.
They rushed to see what was happening, and the teen said a man had been in her room.
They went out to see if they could see someone, but there was no sign of him.
Her parents initially thought she may have been having a bad dream.
When they returned to her bedroom, the teen screamed again.
A partially smoked cigarette lay in the middle of her bed.
They soon found more traces of a stranger having been in the house.
The teen girl’s drawers were open and her underwear was strewn; one of her bras was in another bedroom, slung over a chair; a laundry basket from the younger girls’ room had been taken into the lounge and emptied.
It had been a warm night, and the window had been mistakenly left open behind a closed curtain.
Tatham-Tahere carried vice grips and a screwdriver with him that night, as well as a black sports bag to carry items from the house.
He moved a small rubbish bin to underneath the open window, took his shoes off, and left them where the rubbish bin had originally been.
After lying on top of the teen girl, causing her to scream, he jumped off her and ran out of the house, taking with him the bag that contained the underwear.
Tatham-Tahere was arrested the following day, and a search warrant was executed at his Rotorua address.
The bag containing the female underwear was located.
A phone search discovered that he had searched Instagram for her first name. She didn’t know him, but he lived nearby.
Now, more than a year after the incident, Tatham-Tahere has pleaded guilty in the Rotorua District Court to doing an indecent act on a young person.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary.
He initially denied the indecent act charge, and had elected a trial by jury, but changed his plea on Monday afternoon.
He will be sentenced on April 13.
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.
