Disgraced star’s victims speak

Two of six women actor abused asked that details of his acts be publicised. Sam Hurley and Anna Leask report.

Actor Lee Rene Naufahu yesterday was sentenced to one year home detention for indecently assaulting six women. The offending took place between 2011 and 2013 in Naufahu’s Auckland acting classes.

He initially denied any wrongdoing — and his admission came just a week before he was due to go on trial in the Auckland District Court.

Now the Herald can reveal what the 47-year-old former Shortland Street star put his victims through.

Two of the women have provided their full victim impact statements in a bid to show just how traumatic the offending was, and the long-lasting effects it has had on their lives.

Shorter versions of the statements were provided to Judge Rob Ronayne for sentencing.

But the women wanted their voices heard in full.

Here they share their stories. ‘ Y ou’re going to be the New Zealand Charlize Theron,” Naufahu told the 19-year-old.

He was a well-known and respected actor; she a teenager just entering the industry and hoping to learn the skills and techniques that would propel a screen career.

“He expressed a desire to help me reach my full potential as he really saw ‘something’ in me,” she said.

The woman progressed quickly from beginner to advanced stages in Naufahu’s acting classes, and he invited her to take part in one-onone sessions with him.

“Under this close attention I was flattered and agreed to take part in these coaching sessions, which he did not charge for — though they came with the stipulation that I was not to tell anyone about them,” she said, adding Naufahu explained that he didn’t want other students to be jealous.

But there was another motive to the classes: the woman, like five others, was indecently assaulted by Naufahu.

The cost was years of ongoing personal pain — likely to affect her for the rest of her life, she said.

“This has caused me lasting physical, mental and emotional damage which I am still working to understand seven years later,” the woman, now 27, said. She described the acting classes. “During these sessions Rene systematically, over a period of months, [proceeded] to groom me to the point of ignoring appropriate boundaries [to] break down any resistance to his physical and sexual violations,” she said.

“He kissed me and forced his tongue into my mouth, groped my entire body and touched my breasts and genital area as though he owned them.

“Any protests were met with soothing explanations like ‘this is what it takes to become a better actor’.

“At one stage I remember him . . . hiding an erection behind his hands, at the same time excitedly talking about how talented I was and how we were making amazing progress; he couldn’t believe how incredible I was at this.

“The feeling of elation I felt at the time, thinking I really was a talented actress and could actually take this somewhere as my career caused me to ignore my deeper sense of alarm that something truly wrong was happening in that closed-off room, with windows covered in movie posters and a locked door preventing any interruptions to Rene’s abuse.”

As time went on, she said that alarm sounded louder and she stopped seeing Naufahu.

“I started to push the memories of those coaching sessions [to the] back of my mind — I knew something grossly wrong had occurred, but I didn’t know who to talk to or what to do about it,” she said.

“At the same time I felt an extreme level of guilt and worry whenever I came across Rene or talked to him,” she said.

“At the time I couldn’t understand what was happening at all, but the feelings grew until any time I thought I was going to come across him, I would physically break out in signs of fear, sweating and shaking and losing all confidence no matter who else was around me at the same time.”

After about a year a relative asked why she had “given up on acting” and she disclosed the abuse.

“Something burst and I blurted out ‘because he’s a creepy guy who used to kiss me in one-on-one acting classes’,” she recalled.

She said she “downplayed” the level of abuse until she was encouraged by her relative to talk about what really happened.

The woman said it was “impossible to describe the level of stress and negative emotion” in her life since she made the decision “to prevent Rene from abusing women in this manner ever again”.

“While I have never wavered in my resolve that this was the right thing to do, there have been multiple instances of public denial and media manipulation from Rene and his PR team that have been offensive and sickening, continuing to display this gross imbalance of power between the men with influence and the vulnerable women trying to find justice and prevent this . . . ever reoccurring,” she said.

She said at times, the process had “felt like a joke”.

“From the moment his name suppression was lifted I have watched as he convinced other groups of society of his innocence, even going as far as to publicly baptise himself in association with a local church group, as though this would somehow wash away his crimes in the eyes of the public, the church and the court system,” she said.

“It has been embarrassing to watch and subjected me to moments of . . . extreme worry and unpredictable darkness, sending me back to that [room] to re-live the worst moments of his disgusting behaviour again and again.

“I had to realise the effect this had on my relationships and trust of other people, the way I relate to men in my life as well as how I react to complete strangers, ongoing triggers that will send me back to these experiences and even the way I have abused alcohol and drugs to shield myself from the experiences and feelings I did not want to recall.”

The woman has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and continues to attend counselling.

She said Naufahu owed a debt to society for his offending.

“There has been collective and intense pain felt by many as a direct result of Rene’s actions, pain that will last far longer than those short few sessions spent locked away . . . under his abusive control,” she said.

As the film and television industries, among others, come to grips with dozens of accusations of sexual abuse, she also wanted other men to take a strong message from the case — and to encourage women to come forward, no matter who had abused them.

“It’s clear to me that this kind of behaviour is rife through the entertainment industry and as recent media headlines have shown, far from unique to the New Zealand landscape,” she said.

“This is also a timely opportunity for us to set an example and show that this kind of abusive action is not tolerated in society, and a chance for us to demonstrate to vulnerable women in any industry, at any age, that they will be heard and serious action will be taken in any similar situation.”

Any protests were met with soothing explanations like ‘this is what it takes to become a better actor’. Abuse victim