Mathew Stephens is on trial after being accused of assisting a person under 18 in providing commercial sexual services and receiving money from those services. Photo / George Heard
Mathew Stephens is on trial after being accused of assisting a person under 18 in providing commercial sexual services and receiving money from those services. Photo / George Heard
WARNING: This article discusses suicide and may be distressing.
A man accused of organising prostitution deals for a 15-year-old girl and taking some of the earnings after driving her to them has been described as “manipulative” and “controlling”.
Mathew Walters Stephens, who denies any involvement in organising the prostitution deals, appeared at the Christchurch District Court on Monday for a trial set to run for three days.
He has pleaded not guilty to two charges of assisting persons under 18 in providing commercial sexual services and two charges of receiving earnings from commercial sexual services by persons under 18, under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003.
Some of the charges are representative, meaning they happened more than once.
Crown prosecutor Patrick Brand told the jury of the alleged offending between October 2016 and June 2018.
The complainant, who has name suppression, met Stephens when she was 15 and was very “mentally fragile”. She was also addicted to drugs, using methamphetamine, cannabis, speed and MDMA and was already involved in sex work.
Mathew Stephens denies any involvement in arranging prostitution deals with a 15-year-old girl and taking some of her earnings. Photo / George Heard
The Crown alleges Stephens introduced himself to the woman, who is now 20, and told her that he sorts out deals for girls wanting to make money through sex work. He told her he was there to protect her and make her feel safe.
It’s also alleged Stephens would organise clients for the girl and drive her to their place or a hotel room, instructing her to have sex with them before taking $100 from her earnings.
The Crown said Stephens knew the girl’s age and told her to tell clients she was 18. When the charges were laid Stephens said the girl was “vindictive” and was jealous because he was involved with one of her friends.
Stephens’ lawyer Joshua Grainger said his client was never involved in arranging jobs for the complainant or taking her earnings, although he was associating with her at the time.
Mathew Stephens appeared at the Christchurch District Court facing charges under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Photo / George Heard
Stephens thought the girl was older than she was and was unaware she was involved in sex work, Grainger said.
He reminded the jury not to jump to conclusions and wait until they hear all the evidence before reaching their verdict, stating there are two sides to every story.
A “very broken” person
In an interview with the police, which was played to the court, the woman described herself as a walking body with “no soul or spirit”. She said she was very broken, suicidal, “basically homeless” and felt like she had no genuine connections with anyone during the period she was associating with Stephens.
She was raised in a Christian household and was not aware of what the real world was like and was “probably an easy target”, she said.
She said she and Stephens would message each other often and see each other roughly four times a month, sometimes for sex work or to just “hang out”. She said the first time they met, Stephens gave her $100.
The woman also said Stephens was always quick to give her money and described him as “grooming” her, stating he would often pay her to spend time with him.
She also described “inappropriate behaviour” from Stephens that she felt “obliged” to respond to, such as kissing.
The court heard how she sometimes felt uncomfortable, and Stephens would act as if the pair were a couple, on one occasion asking her for sex but later admitting it was wrong of him to ask.
The woman said she never went to Stephens’ house and that he would always pick her up in his car and take her to the client or they would get food and go for a drive somewhere.
She described being high and sleep-deprived most of the time they saw each other. She eventually admitted herself to a rehabilitation programme to turn her life around and in 2020, made a statement to the police.
She described Stephens as “manipulative and controlling” and having “no boundaries”.
Under cross-examination by Grainger, the woman said she initially told Stephens she was 16 but said he knew she was 15.
Grainger put a variety of instances where the pair met up to her but she said she couldn’t recall most of these.
He asked if there were times when her “memory tricked” her during that period of her life using drugs and being associated with Stephens to which she responded yes.
She said from her understanding Stephens stopped contacting her as she began to turn her life around to “protect himself”.
The woman said she deleted lots of the messages between her and Stpehens as a way of blocking out the “trauma” of what she went through.
He asked if it was possible that Stephens did hang out with her but he was not involved in any of her sex work. She said no.
The trial before Judge Gerard Lynch and a jury continues.
Emily Moorhouse is a Christchurch-based Open Justice journalist at NZME. She joined NZME in 2022. Before that, she was at the Christchurch Star.
