Child predator convicted again
Tupou had been in prison for 20 years before new convictions added
SAN JOSE >> A man serving a lengthy prison term for grooming and sexually abusing a South Bay girl two decades ago will stay incarcerated for the foreseeable future after he was sentenced for earlier abuse against a group of underage sisters in Palo Alto, allegations that resurfaced five years ago in part because of the #MeToo movement.
David Schwenke Tupou, 64, has been in state prison since 2001, when he was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and given a 63-year sentence. In 2017, three sisters whose mother hired Tupou as their au pair in the 1990s came forward to allege they were methodically and repeatedly abused by Tupou when they were under his care.
The women in the recent case first brought up their accusations nearly 30 years ago, but say they were silenced by their mother and her supporters who didn't want to cause a scandal, which effectively stymied a police investigation and any prosecution of Tupou.
At Tupou's sentencing June 3, the women laid out in heartbreaking detail how his abuse affected them well into adulthood. They spoke of the impact they hope to have for other abuse survivors who experienced similar admonitions against bringing their experiences to light.
“He was methodical and unyielding in his sexual pursuit of small children,” said one of the sisters, who was identified in court as Alexandra Doe. “I am consumed with grief, sorrow and agony … I have wondered if I could ever be healed and made whole.”
Alexandra was the first to offer what is known as a victim impact statement. Like her two sisters, she said a major reason for coming forward so many years after the abuse was to ensure Tupou doesn't get released from prison any time soon. Tupou was approaching eligibility for the state's elder parole program, by virtue of his age and time served; the new conviction and sentence push that back.
“Tupou hates children,” she said. “Tupou is a repulsive, vile, sadistic person, the worst that society has to offer.”
A second sister, identified in court as Michaela Doe, described the scars she still bears from years of being abused and having her pleas for help ignored.
“We were never safe, we were never protected, we were never believed; those are feelings no child should ever have,” she said. “I have forever doubted myself and questioned my experiences: experiences I was having that I hated and didn't want to participate in, but was told by everyone they were not happening.”
Michaela added that she was also dismayed by how the girl whom Tupou abused after them might have been spared had their accounts been treated seriously by the people caring for them.
“It breaks my heart that countless others that have been impacted … My hope is that our voices today will give courage and hope to those have yet to be heard,” she said. “What happened to me was significant; it merits Tupou being incarcerated for the rest of his life.”
The third sister, identified in court as Bronwen Doe, gave the lengthiest statement and addressed Tupou and her parents for covering up their abuse from the public.
Like her sisters, she described sexual language and conduct that she says Tupou normalized around them, including seeking to blur their abuse under the guise of wrestling and other innocuous contact, even though it involved explicit sexual acts he demanded from them. In many instances, she said, Tupou withheld food from them if they didn't obey him.
“For my entire life, I have been silenced, denied and gaslighted as I have tried to tell the truth about Tupou,” Bronwen Doe said. “My childhood turned into a dark, dystopian nightmare in which no matter how loud I screamed, nobody heard and nobody helped.”
At some point in the late 1990s, she said, she saw that Tupou suddenly disappeared from their lives. What the sisters didn't learn until years later is that he had been arrested, charged and convicted with abusing a young girl in San Jose. The victim in that case, identified in court as Ashley Doe, also spoke June 3 at Tupou's sentencing, describing a childhood lost to Tupou preying on her and hyper-sexualizing their relationship. Her statements joined an array of written statements that were submitted to the court but not read out loud June 3.
“I am not the only adult woman who is living in fear of him,” Ashley Doe said, adding that Tupou leaves “the kind of scars that don't show on your skin but that constantly show up in your life … these scars change you and they never go away.”
Tupou was given the chance to address the court before he was sentenced June 3. He gave scattered remarks, lamenting his imprisonment and the loss of his au pair job. He characterized the women's accounts as being a “compromise” to keep someone they considered a pedophile out of society, “regardless of how erroneous that conclusion is.”
At the end of the hearing, Judge Javier Alcala sentenced Tupou to six years in prison for one felony count of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 by force or fear, and 15 years to life in prison for a felony count alleging multiple victims. Alcala set the sentences to run consecutively, on top of Tupou's existing prison sentence.
Bronwen Doe and her sisters said they are finding some sense of closure, though much more healing lies ahead.
“After 25 years of keeping Tupou's warped secrets, my sisters and I chose to break our silence in 2016,” she said. “More than anything, we wanted to facilitate the protection of Tupou's past and future victims. We wanted to provide them with the protection that we ourselves had once desperately needed and been denied.”