Top chef jailed for sex attack
A top Hamilton chef took advantage of an extremely drunk woman by taking her to a secluded spot in the city where he sexually violated her.
Now Shannon Boy Ahuroa Katipa, 42, has been jailed for four and a half years.
Katipa, who appeared in the Hamilton District Court this week, had earlier been found guilty by a jury on one count of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, in relation to the incident that happened in the early hours of the morning on May 19 last year.
Katipa is well known in
Hamilton for his culinary prowess, having represented New Zealand at international cheffing competitions. He also worked as a chef tutor at Wintec.
Earlier this year he opened a restaurant in Collingwood St called Fusion@237. The business was forced to close following his conviction and remand in custody.
His conviction centred around an incident that began about
2.30am in Shenanigan’s Irish Bar on Victoria St, where Katipa was drinking after a night out with friends.
Also drinking at the bar was the victim. The pair had not met before that night and spent about
20 minutes in each other’s company before leaving the bar together.
She could be seen afterward on security camera footage outside the bar, propping herself up by leaning heavily on a street sign.
Katipa called them a cab, but rather than heading to the woman’s home on the other side of the city, he told the driver to take them to the lake.
Camera footage from inside the taxi that night showed Katipa putting his hands on her legs, as she slumped over.
Katipa asked the driver to stop by the lake and for about two minutes he attempted to coerce the woman to hop out of the car. She however, was too drunk to get out on her own accord and he ended up having to physically pull her out of the vehicle.
The last the taxi driver saw of Katipa and his victim was them walking off into the darkness together.
The wet, muddy woman was found by two police constables hours later, wandering near the lake in a distressed and disoriented state. She had scratches and abrasions on her breasts, thighs and knees and some of her fingernails had been broken.
Later medical tests found that she would have had a blood alcohol level about four to five times that of the legal driving limit.
Katipa’s DNA was later found inside her vagina and cervix – however there was no evidence of semen.
The woman was unable to recall the incident itself, but she did have patchy memories of running from someone and being scared.
In a victim statement provided to the court, she spoke of the ongoing psychological and emotional toll the incident had taken on her and how it had affected her relationships, induced insomnia and instilled a fear of others.
Katipa initially told the police
that ‘‘nothing sexual occurred’’, but later admitted ‘‘I fingered her only, there was no intercourse’’.
At his trial in October he said they had ‘‘fooled around’’ for about 15 minutes and then talked for about two hours until 2am – an account of events that was rejected by the jury. In court on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Rebecca Guthrie said the nature of the victim’s injuries indicated there must have been some violence involved.
‘‘He must have known the victim was vulnerable by virtue of her extreme intoxication.’’
Katipa’s counsel Mike McIvor argued there was insufficient evidence to suggest an assault had occurred. Rather, it appeared that the injuries she suffered would like have been incurred by stumbling around drunk in the dark.
Judge Simon Menzies agreed with McIvor.
‘‘I’m not satisfied there is a proper evidential basis that all of the injuries were attributable [to an assault] .... Therefore the violence involved was no more than the violence inherent in the charge itself.’’
Guthrie sought a starting point for sentence of nine to 10 years in jail. McIvor asked for three to four years. Menzies took a start point of six years in jail. Katipa had come to court with no previous convictions and numerous affidavits attesting to his good character and in recognition of this the judge deducted a year and a half from the sentence, ending with a four and a half year term.
A contingent of supporters had come to see Katipa and he tearfully called out ‘‘love you guys’’ to them, as he was led out of the courtroom to the courthouse cells.
‘‘Kia kaha,’’ one of his supporters called back.