A victim's lobby group has described as "very light" a sentence of just over three years given to a man who abducted a teenage girl for sex, took her to a house, and hid her in a wardrobe on Christmas Day.
Joseph Rameka, 30, pleaded guilty in the Whangarei District Court to a charge of abduction last month. The charge carries a maximum term of 14 years in jail. Rameka was jailed for three years and two months.
Judge Christopher Field outlined the summary of facts in the case. The judge said in the early hours of Christmas Day in 2013, the 17-year-old victim was accosted by Rameka in Whangarei who had been out buying cigarettes and a bottle of soft drink. He approached her and offered her the soft drink.
When she finished drinking, Rameka said to her: "Now you owe me. You owe me sex."
The teenager said she wanted to go home but he grabbed her wrist, took her to a house, and hid her in a wardrobe. She spent 50 minutes in the wardrobe and she was still inside when police arrived. She suffered minor injuries to her wrist.