Sex abuser damned by her texts
Repeated text exchanges about being aroused over sex acts with young girls convinced a judge Laken Rose had an interest in her partner’s sexual offending.
Laken Maree Rose and former partner Andrew Alan Williams were charged with a raft of offences against children aged three to 14.
They are well known in equestrian circles and were arrested in May 2019 after police searched their Cambridge home.
Yesterday, 31-year-old Rose was found guilty of 45 charges and not guilty on five in the High Court at Hamilton.
She had pleaded guilty to a further ten charges during a November trial.
Williams, 53, admitted his 56 charges on the first day of trial, before Justice Matthew Muir.
Justice Muir didn’t accept Rose’s explanation that she got no sexual gratification out of what Williams did.
‘‘There are simply too many references in the text record to Ms Rose becoming sexually aroused as a result of discussions between them about his potential offending or as a result of Mr Williams exchanging indecent images of young girls, for me to accept Ms Rose’s position that she was merely telling him what he wanted to hear,’’ Justice Muir said in a written explanation of the verdicts.
‘‘I conclude that although her sexual interests were likely to have been more appropriate at the commencement of her relationship with Mr Williams, her responses came to be conditioned by the environment in which she lived.’’
Williams and Rose met at the Horse of the Year show in 2009, when she was 19 and he 42, and were living together weeks later.
Rose worked in the horse industry and Williams regularly travelled the country as national sales manager for a multinational sealant and filler supplier.
‘‘[Rose] had a desire to please Mr Williams which completely overwhelmed her moral compass at points in her relationship,’’ Justice Muir said.
During the trial, ‘‘she repeated, almost to the point of it being a mantra, that [her behaviour] was because she had variously been threatened, beaten, strangled to unconsciousness or that her family or animals had likewise been threatened’’.
There was some domestic violence and Rose felt generally afraid of Williams, Justice Muir said, but he didn’t accept all her offending was in response to actual threats or violence.
Williams could ‘‘subtly manipulate her vulnerabilities’’ in other ways and, at times, ruthlessly exploited them, the judge wrote.
Rose was particularly vulnerable to coercion because of PTSD and dependent personality disorder, a psychiatrist told the court during the trial.
Charges Rose was found guilty of – some as a party to Williams’ offending – include sexual violation by rape and by unlawful sexual connection, indecent assault on a child under 12, and making an objectionable publication.
‘‘Repellent as this [offending] is, I cannot be influenced by any emotional response to the facts,’’ Justice Muir wrote.
In several cases, Rose filmed Williams’ sexual activity with children.
The court considered that encouraged him, as it ‘‘gave [him] the capacity to revisit the offending for his future sexual gratification’’.
Williams and Rose offended in Waikato, Palmerston North, Dannevirke and Bay of Plenty between 2014 and 2019, at areas including in caravans at a Bay of Plenty naturist park and at a victim’s home.
‘‘From at least 2016 onwards, Ms Rose was aware that Mr Williams was prepared to go well beyond talking or fantasising about sex with children, and well beyond photographing them,’’ Justice Muir wrote. ‘‘From that point at least, she knew him to be a sexual predator on girls as young as three who regarded himself as unconstrained in terms of how far he could go.’’
Once, Rose took a mother for a massage while Williams was left alone with her child, but told the court she thought he would only take photos of the girl.I have no doubt that, by keeping [the mother] at the mall ‘‘as long as I can’’, she intended to assist Mr Williams to commit offending of the type for which he has been charged and convicted.’’
Rose’s key defence was compulsion: acting under threat, in fear of her life.
Justice Muir rejected that, in several cases pointing out times she could have got away or sought help including at the naturist park.
‘‘As was typical in their relationship, there was a reasonable amount of autonomy. Ms Rose was not Mr Williams’ prisoner.’’
Justice Muir found Rose not guilty on five charges: three of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and two of possession of objectionable material charges.
During the trial, Rose described Williams monitoring her phone, strangling her, and following her around New Zealand when she tried to leave him.
He threatened to kill her – or hurt family members or animals – if she did not comply with his demands, and to kill himself if she left him, she said.
Crown Prosecutor Anna Pollett told the court videos of the offending were the couple’s downfall.
Rose was a willing participant who helped groom girls to do sexual acts with her and Williams, Pollett said.
Rose has been remanded in custody until she and Williams are sentenced in February.
Justice Muir asked for a presentence report and a report by a health assessor to be completed before then.
‘‘This will be a difficult sentencing and as much assistance as I can from whatever sources I can will be greatly appreciated,’’ he said.