No compo for alleged ‘groper Roper’ victim

An alleged victim of an Air Force sergeant convicted of several sexual crimes will receive no compensation because of the statute of limitations, a judge has ruled.

A former enlisted woman, known as M, sued the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) earlier this year for damages over its alleged failure to act against the man now known as “groper Roper”.

Robert Richard Roper’s offending occurred between 1976 and 1988 when he served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) at its Whenuapai base in Hobsonville. Now in his 70s, he was sentenced in 2015 to 13 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of 20 sex charges against five women.

But Roper’s crimes only came to light at the end of 2012 — 23 years after he left the military — when his daughter told police her father abused her from the age of 6.

M was one of nine new complainants or witnesses who came forward after Roper was first charged.

She abandoned her police complaint in favour of a High Court civil proceeding, seeking compensation from the Attorney-General, on behalf of the NZDF, after she claimed her superior officers failed to act when informed of Roper’s crimes.

Roper bullied, verbally abused, sexually harassed, inappropriately touched and falsely imprisoned her between 1985 and 1988, she alleged.

She sought $600,000 in compensation, special damages for loss of earnings, medical and other expenses, and interest and legal costs.

M was just 18 at the time of Roper’s offending and in her own words was “very shy, quiet and naive”.

She said Roper would grope her as she was driving him home late at night, and regularly lock her and leave her in a tyre cage. Roper would also rub himself against her, try and undo her bra straps, and use an iron bar to prod her in the backside, she said.

At Roper’s criminal trial, one victim told the court the sergeant offered her a ride home before driving her to the bombing range where he bound her hands with the seatbelt and raped her.

Yesterday, Justice Rebecca Edwards dismissed M’s claim for damages. The judge said although she accepted many of M’s allegations and there was a connection between Roper’s abuse and her posttraumatic stress disorder — diagnosed in 2016 after the civil proceedings were filed — her claim was barred by both the Limitation Act and by the Accident Compensation Act.

Roper lost his appeal against his convictions and sentence in 2016.