A teenage boy says he was sexually offended against so often he "got used to it".
Warning: This story contains evidence of a sexual nature which some readers may find upsetting.
“I shouldn’t have to feel scared in my own home.”
Those were the words from a teenage boy who alleges he was forced to perform oral sex on his aunty’s partner so many times that eventually he “got used to it” and began to think it was okay.
He was giving evidence during the trial of a man in his 20s who is facing 27 charges relating to the alleged sexual and physical abuse of five cousins, including the teenage boy.
The Tauranga District Court heard that some of the cousins were living at “Nan’s house” in Kawerau, where the defendant was also living with his partner for a time.
The teenage boy alleges the offending started with a slap on his bottom by the defendant when they were unpacking shopping from a car.
He said it later escalated when the man “actually made his move”.
The teenage boy had been threatened with “a hiding” if he didn’t perform oral sex on the man, the court heard in an evidential video.
The boy said instances of that specific act happened on “too many” occasions, including after they’d had a communion service at home, during family events, and when the defendant had returned from church.
“[He went to that] church thing, I think it was a deliverance... passing all your sin away to God, and as then soon as they got back he got me to [perform a sexual act].”
The teenage boy began to feel angry and upset and no longer wanted to feel afraid in his “own home”.
He’d gone away on holiday and had told an aunty about the allegations.
The boy’s cousin, who’s the same age and was living in the same house, gave evidence earlier in the trial about her own allegations.
“I kept it to myself, and then I found out my cousins were being assaulted as well.”
She was having a rough time and chose to confide in the teenage boy about what the defendant had allegedly been doing to her - slaps on the bottom, an attempt to climb into bed with her, his hand down her bra.
The two confided in each other at the time, they both said in their evidential videos, and through evidence given in court.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer David Bates, the girl was asked why the cousins had talked amongst themselves.
They’d formed a tight group because they “needed somewhere to vent”, she said.
Bates asked why she hadn’t told an adult family member or a teacher.
“I didn’t believe they could help me.”
The cousins had warned each other to “be cautious” when around the defendant, she said.
The defence case is the cousins made up the alleged offending to get the man into trouble.
The teenage girl alleges she was 14 when the first assault happened.
In her evidential video, the court heard she was asleep in bed after a fun-filled family event where she’d been playing games with her cousins, jumping on the trampoline, and “doing what kids do”.
She’d gone to bed exhausted only to be woken by the defendant squeezing her feet, she said.
“I felt these two huge hands on my feet and he squeezed the heck out of them.”
The squeezing, which she likened to ringing water out of a towel, had been painful and had woken her up.
She said the defendant was standing at the end of her bed and asked her to come with him, which she had done because in her family children were taught, “obey your elders”.
He took her outside to ask what the children had been doing earlier in the evening, and she’d explained they’d just been playing games.
She said she went back to bed, but he had done the same thing, squeezing her feet and asking her to come with him.
She said she chose not to go back to sleep after that incident and instead went into the lounge where she looked through family photo albums and became emotional while reminiscing about happy memories.
The defendant had again asked her to come with him, and he took her to an outdoor couch, giving her a side hug.
“He rested his head on my shoulder and said ‘It’s okay, it’s okay’, and the comfort made me cry more,” she said.
He then allegedly began stroking her across her chest and then she says his hand slipped down into her bra, making her uncomfortable.
As she walked away, she alleges he whispered in her ear that he wanted to perform a further sexual act on her, in graphic terms.
The other adults in the house had been out in the garage, drinking and enjoying each other’s company, she said.
The teenage girl described other alleged assaults - where he had slapped her on the bottom through an open window next to her bed as she napped after school, and a time when he’d climbed into bed with her in the early hours of the morning.
In cross-examination, Bates said none of the incidents had happened.
“You’re wrong”, she replied.
The trial continues before Judge David Cameron.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
The couple spend five months a year in America running their business.