Exchange student accused of two rapes

A European exchange student is accused of raping two high school girls on the same night.

One girl complained to police, but was told they were “unable to advance the matter at this time”.

The 15- year- old exchange student allegedly forced himself on one of the girls, who was drunk at a party, before assaulting the second girl as she slept.

The Weekend Herald has seen a message exchange between the 16- year- old girl, who was passed out at the time of the alleged assault, and the international student in which he admitted having sex with her despite her not being aware or able to consent.

The girl, who was the host of the party in late October, said in the message that she “didn’t want it at all”.

In the first incident around midnight, another 16- year- old girl said she went for a walk with the exchange student because she thought it would be to talk.

But when he pushed her against a wall and forced himself on her, she felt too frightened to resist, she said.

She said the exchange student was demanding, angry and at times swearing and she complied because she was afraid.

“Going through my head was ‘ if I do what he says, then I’m going to be all right’.”

Afterwards she burst into tears and fled the party with friends.

The next night she told her parents, who called the police, and an investigation was launched.

The girl said the incident traumatised her. She could not sleep and was receiving counselling.

Her mother said she was “terrified” and had skipped an NCEA exam this week because she didn’t want to go to school where other students were harassing her for complaining.

Both girls attend a different school from the exchange student but the complainant lives in the same town.

The boy, who claimed the sex with the first girl was consensual, was allowed to remain at the upper North Island school despite a request from the complainant’s parents that he be sent back to Europe.

The mother and her husband met the principal in mid- November and were told that legally the school could not exclude the boy, who has four months left of a 12- month placement.

In a letter to the couple, the principal said that in a case in Tauranga where five exchange students were caught smoking marijuana, the school was found to have acted unlawfully by excluding two of them and was ordered to refund their fees.

“I can confirm the legal advice we have received is that it would not be lawful for us to acquiesce to your request, not would it be appropriate in the circumstances,” the principal wrote.

“[ The school] has no jurisdiction nor control over private functions organised independently of the school nor i s the behaviour of students who attend such events within our authority to address.”

However, in the school’s International Student Policies and Procedures document, it is stated that disciplinary procedures would apply to any serious misconduct alleged, both inside and outside the school. It said the school reserved the right to terminate the contract and repatriate the student with forfeiture of fees.

On Thursday night the girl’s parents put their case to the school’s Board of Trustees and were told the boy had now been removed from the district.

It is not clear if he had been sent back to Europe or to another New Zealand school.

Detective Senior Sergeant Kim Libby confirmed that police investigated the incidents but “based on the wishes of those involved and the information available to us, police have been unable to advance the matter at this time”.

The mother of the second victim did not want to discuss the issue.