Black part of paedo ring: widow
Some of the group are powerful people, she claims
The widow who told the world her politician husband was a paedophile says he was involved in a ring of abusers which goes to “the highest heights you can imagine”.
In an exclusive interview, Anihera Zhou Black told the Herald: “This goes deep and wide, in terms of the paedophile ring, to the highest heights you can imagine. These people aren’t just labourers and workers at fast-food restaurants. These people are suits and people in power.”
Awanui Black died aged 48 in 2016. He was a regional councillor, Maori Party political aspirant, a commissioner at the Maori Language Commission, lecturer at Te Wananga o Raukawa and Treaty of Waitangi negotiator for Ngati Pukenga.
He was also a paedophile, according to
Zhou Black’s gutwrenching Facebook Live broadcast on Saturday.
Zhou Black, 49, said yesterday her decision to denounce him was intended to give strength to victims of abuse.
She told of her belief Black had used their marriage to mask his predatory sexual behaviour towards children and her growing horror as she realised he was not the man she believed him to be.
The couple had met aged 15 and were in a relationship from 18. He went on to become a highly regarded pillar of the Bay of Plenty community.
“Our relationship is one where I never had a voice through our marriage. I had been conditioned, groomed, to be the quiet wife.”
Her Facebook Live post — based on partial admissions from Black and disclosures from others — came after 26 years of silence.
“I had painted a picture of who he was and along with everybody else it was a picture he wanted us to see.
“I had held onto that with everything I had, supported everything he did and let him go off and do kaupapa and I looked after our children and looked after our household and just did what I had to do to support him.”
Now, she believed he had used their marriage as a mask for his “private life” that included affairs with consenting adults, child abuse and large amounts of alcohol.
“He did admit to me that he thought he was rangatira and he thought he was entitled to have women wherever he slept for the night. That might have rolled a few hundred years ago but it’s not what I signed up for. He was never, ever faithful. Prostitutes, orgies, group sex — all of it.”
And there were children, she said. The youngest victim to have emerged was someone who claimed to be aged 8 when sexually abused by Awanui Black.
Zhou Black said the couple separated in 2012, during which time he admitted affairs and using preteen pornography. There was a reconciliation a year later but the time away gave Zhou Black a voice she felt she never had. They separated again in 2014 and stayed apart.
Zhou Black said during these times she would yearn for him to tell the truth. Disclosures came and events occurred that answered questions from her years married to him.
It led her to believe a “ring” of people — with her former husband — had preyed on children. She said she would speak with police but believed an independent investigation could be necessary as one of those she believed involved had been a police officer.
“We don’t know where the coverup will begin. There are compromised police here in Tauranga that are part of that ring. I know of one.”
She would not name suspected victims.
Zhou Black said Black had been abused as a child and the experience had warped him. She believed his actions as a predator drove his alcohol abuse and eventual death from organ failure.
“He killed himself. It was suicide by alcohol. He couldn’t live with everything that was going to be exposed. It was just a matter of time.”
She had confronted him and he had denied the claims, becoming defensive and “quite violent”.
“It wasn’t something I could condone or keep quiet about. It’s taken me a number of years to get to where I got to yesterday. What he knew was that everything was crumbling. The facade he had carefully manicured over the years was coming down and he would be exposed. That’s why he took himself out.”
In the days after his death, she had a number of shocks, including physical evidence left on his mobile phone, which had been passed to her. On it was a photo of a naked teenage girl — sent by the girl at his encouragement.
There are now growing calls from Bay of Plenty community leaders for police to investigate the claims.
A police spokesperson said they would seek further information.