Justice denied in sex cases

Sex offenders and burglars are among the most fortunate of criminals. Their conviction rate compared with the estimated number of times they offend is laughable. Good luck getting police interested in your burglary. As for rape, why drag yourself to the police station for intrusive questioning and invasive evidence-collection when you know there were no witnesses, and that the rapist will, of course, say you consented? And why take the stand for juries to judge you on your shade of lipstick and the sexiness – or otherwise – of the underpants you were wearing?

Then there are youth offenders, another category of offender with another category of justice. Or not, as in this case.

Joseph Parker, the Roast Buster, not the boxer, this week revealed his dream of becoming a star in the music world, somewhat optimistically, considering his past history, in the #MeToo era.

He and his Auckland schoolboy mates appalled us a few years back, when we learned they had been having gang-bangs with drunk underage girls, and boasting about it online, which Parker admitted in his televised interview. There had also been a video online. The whole thing, Parker explained this week, had been a ‘‘performance act’’.

He described himself as an artist. A wiser young man would still be keeping a low profile.

Now in his early twenties, by my reckoning, Parker seeks funding to release a song he’s composed which, we’re told, refers in part to his teenage antics.

Is he sorry? About as sorry as any young male would be about testosterone-fuelled behaviour for which he never faced legal consequences, and which he slid over in his interview this week by saying, twice, that police had ‘‘reasons’’ why that never happened. To be clear, the police investigation was judged inadequate at a subsequent inquiry.

I saw, among his evasions and the declaration that he’d found God, a level of naivety, or maybe just narcissism. That he had been OK exploiting under-age girls for his own ego trip back then kind of meant it was OK at the time, though he wouldn’t do it now. He didn’t exactly radiate repentance, though God, he said, had forgiven him. God’s good like that. His victims don’t seem to be so eager to write it off.

The mishandling of this affair by police allowed Parker and his mates to treat lightly the humiliation and pain of their victims, which it seems still hasn’t registered with him, other than in words. That they came from middle-class homes may be relevant. Parker’s father is an actor; another boy’s father was a police officer.

In another matter, Mariya Taylor, who sued the Defence Force and Robert Roper for his revolting offending against her as a young driver at Whenuapai air base, heard the news that her case was presented too late, and she had to pay him $28,000 in costs. While her complaints had not extended to rape, Roper stands convicted of raping three women, two of them his daughters. Taylor said she was ‘‘devastated’’ by the news, and ‘‘there seems to be no justice’’.

Whatever gave her the impression that there is justice in the system? For one thing, surely the whole process could have been cut short by the cold news that she’d missed the deadline before she, and Roper for that matter, ran up the lavish costs of litigation.

So I guess the judge and lawyers gathered up their files, shoved them in their briefcases, and set out on new adventures. Meanwhile, a disgusted public had donated $20,000 to Taylor by yesterday morning. It makes a difference if you have a heart.