Paedophile back in jail

A man who was abused by a spiritualism minister says he only made a police complaint so he can get closure from the horrific offending he suffered.

The man who committed that offending, Joseph Teruakirikiri Riwai Martin, was not given any additional prison time by Judge Jim Large in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

But he will end up spending at least 17 months in jail, due to a quirk in his case.

Martin, also known as Chief Winterhawk after being made an honorary Apache chief, was sentenced to preventive detention in 1999 for sexual offending against multiple children in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Feilding man used his position as a cub leader and minister for New Zealand Spiritualist Church to isolate, then sexually abuse, boys.

He was granted parole in February 2011, but was back behind bars four days before Christmas in 2017 after another victim came forward.

In that case, the one Martin was in court for yesterday, he met a family through his ministry work in Napier in the late-1980s.

He gained the trust of the parents, who allowed him to take their pre-teen boy to his Feilding home for a two-week mentoring session.

The boy was told to share Martin’s bed, and awoke one

‘‘But he still needs to be held accountable for what he did.’’ Victim

night to find he was being made to perform a sex act on Martin.

Martin later raped the boy, who suffered injuries as a result.

In his impact statement, which Judge Jim Large read parts of to the court, the victim said he found it difficult to talk to his mother about the offending because Martin was a trusted person.

He laid his complaint not so Martin would be punished, but so he could ‘‘get closure and move on’’.

‘‘I honestly don’t care if Joseph goes to prison or not, as long as he is outed for what he did to me and acknowledges his wrongdoing.’’

He hated Martin for some time for what he did, but had since forgiven him.

‘‘But he still needs to be held accountable for what he did.’’

Martin was convicted and discharged.

But defence lawyer Tony Thackery said Martin would be in jail until at least May, because he was recalled on his preventive detention sentence when charged.

That meant he would have to appear before the Parole Board before release, which would not happen until May, Thackery said.