Victim describes months of ‘living hell’ with rapist
A woman endured 13 months of beatings, rape, imprisonment and psychological torture after accepting an offer of a place to stay in an old school in South Taranaki.
Lewis Ata Turahui raped the woman, pulled her around by her hair and and often kept her locked up and naked in sheds at the former primary school, a court heard on Monday.
The summary of facts stated Turahui’s victim, who had been living in Auckland, took up an offer of somewhere to live in August 2014. Things quickly turned sinister.
‘‘Between the 1st of August 2014 and the 22nd of September 2015 the defendant and victim had a tempestuous and volatile relationship,’’ the summary stated.
Within the first week Turahui started to run her down, telling her he had got her out of the gutter, she was a nobody, a slut, and she owed him and her family didn’t care about her.
During the week Turahui went from sleeping on the couch in her room to beside her on her bed before raping her.
‘‘She tried to fight him off her but his bigger build and strength was too much for her.’’
Regularly throughout her stay the victim described Turahui dragging her around by the hair and locking her in various sheds on the property, usually for refusing to have sex with him.
‘‘Sometimes she was locked up for less than an hour, other times a couple of hours but the longest time was three days. The defendant would take her clothes from her and make her only wear her underwear and bra or be naked.’’
She described Turahui standing outside a shed taunting her by saying things like ‘‘you know what you have to do if you want to come out’’.
Near the end of her time with Turahui the victim was held in the school house and although the door was not locked she was so conditioned to stay she did so until the defendant released her.
She recalled another incident when Turahui got hold of her, as she was trying to get away from him, and threw her on the back of her ute. He also threw on a shovel and locked the canopy, preventing her from escaping. Turahui told her he was going to take her to some Ma¯ori land where no-one would know and kill her.
In September 2015 the victim was accepted by Women’s Refuge into a safe house.
Turahui appeared before Judge Chris Sygrove in the New Plymouth District Court on Monday for sentencing on one charge of rape, and representative charges of male assaults female and kidnapping. The 58-year-old had pleaded guilty in August as he was about to stand trial.
Crown prosecutor Justin Marinovich said Turahui’s offending had had a significant impact on the victim, who described it as being in a ‘‘living hell’’.
‘‘I did whatever I had to do to survive and keep safe,’’ her victim impact statement read. Marinovich sought a term of imprisonment of nine and a half years.
Defence lawyer Turitea Bolstad said it was accepted Turahui was going to be jailed. She said he was remorseful and had written a letter to the court expressing his emotions but his offer to attend a restorative justice conference with his victim had been declined.
Bolstad said an end sentence between eight and eight and a half years was appropriate.
Sygrove said he wasn’t sure how the woman had survived her ordeal and Turahui’s remorse had come at a late stage.
He sentenced Turahui to a total of nine years imprisonment.