Trans woman violated man
Seu jailed for more than six years after sexual attacks
Atransgender woman stalked his young victim through central Dunedin for a kilometre before attacking him and sexually violating him in an alleyway and the grounds of a church.
Alex Aleti Seu will spend at least the next four years behind bars after being jailed for a violent sexual attack on a young man and the indecent assaults of two of his former flatmates.
The 30-year-old was jailed for six years and nine months with a minimum non-parole period of four years during his appearance in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
Seu had been at a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Regent Theatre on the night of June 25, while his victim had watched the All Blacks’ test game against Wales.
The pair were both in the Octagon in the early hours of the following morning, when the victim left to walk to a friend’s flat in North Dunedin.
Seu started following the victim down George St, according to a summary of facts.
“As they approached Albany St, the defendant quickened his pace and caught up with the complainant on the corner of Albany and George St,” it said.
“The complainant turned into Albany St and as he did the defendant grabbed on to his arm and dragged him into a dark alleyway.”
Seu threw his heavily intoxicated victim into a brick wall, stunning him in the process. He then performed sexual acts on him. The young man managed to break free and momentarily escape.
Seu pursued the victim down Great King St and forced him into the grounds of a church. There he continued his attack.
The victim suffered injuries as a result of the attack as well as suffering from “severe psychological” impacts, Judge Kevin Phillips said.
“This has had a major impact on his life,” Judge Phillips told Seu during the sentencing.
The indecent assaults against his former flatmates took place on August 10 and August 18 last year following Seu’s arrest for the sexual attack.
The court heard a pre-sentence report assessed Seu as potentially being a high-risk of reoffending.
However, Crown prosecutor Craig Power questioned that assessment. “He’s assessed as potentially a highrisk, where in my submission that understates it — he is a high-risk,” Power said.
Defence lawyer Sarah Saunderson-Warner said Seu’s offending was opportunistic.
But Phillips dismissed that notion, saying it featured a “high-degree of premeditation, determination and violence”.
It was revealed in court yesterday that Seu “considered the encounter consensual until he read the victim impact statement”.
Phillips dismissed the suggestion the interaction could be construed as consensual.
“It was an attack by you on a man that you selected as he was highly intoxicated,” he said.
Seu was jailed for six years and nine months on the most serious sexual violation charge, four years’ jail on the secondary sexual violation charge against the same victim and one year for each of the three counts of indecent assault on his flatmates. All sentences will be served concurrently.
Seu shook his head, covered his mouth with his hand and had a look of disbelief on his face as Phillips read some of the details of his offending.
Seu pleaded guilty to the offences in January. He will not be eligible for parole until at least 2020.