WARNING: This article discusses sexual assault and may be distressing.
A disabled woman who let a homeless man sleep on her couch was repaid by getting “thrown around” and sexually violated in an attack that led to her sleeping with a bat under her bed.
Tyler Timu, who prefers the last name Wotton-Kerr, was sentenced at the Christchurch District Court today for his attack on the woman.
He also stole the woman’s phone and Kiwi Access Card.
The woman’s victim impact statement, read by a support person, outlined how the attack left her fearing for her safety and feeling “trapped” inside her own home.
“Tyler threw me around and used his size to his advantage. I’m only 4 foot 2 [127 cm],” she said.
She told Timu she had been assaulted by men in the past, so was wary of letting him into her home but he assured her she was safe with him.
The victim, whose name is suppressed, said she now sleeps with a bat under her bed. She rarely goes out and is constantly looking over her shoulder.
She now needed counselling and took medication to help with her anxiety, although this had only slightly taken the edge off, she said.
She still has a panic attack at the thought of someone knocking on her door, she said.
After the attack, when the woman tried to call for help Timu took her phone, which had her Kiwi Access Card in the back and fled.
The woman, who lives alone, said her phone is her only form of communication with her family or doctor, and she uses it to organise all her appointments.
She had to pay for a replacement phone as well as a new card, a national identification card, which she said had taken a huge financial toll on her because of her fixed income on an invalid’s benefit.
According to the summary of facts, in June last year the woman and Timu were messaging on social media when he asked her if he could stay the night at her place because he had been sleeping in his car.
The woman let him into her house and said he could sleep on her couch before leaving the lounge to go to her bedroom.
Shortly after, the woman was woken by Timu entering her room, asking if he could sleep in her bed.
She reluctantly agreed but then Timu began pulling her toward him and asking for cuddles. When she said no, he pinched her bottom, pulled her head towards his and kissed her.
Despite the woman’s protests and attempts to pull away Timu continued and began pulling down her shorts and underwear before sexually violating her.
The woman screamed for Timu to leave but he refused, telling her she was “stupid” and should let him do what he wanted.
The woman tried to grab her cell phone to call for help but Timu snatched it from her once she unlocked it and he got out of the bed with his belongings.
In an attempt to get her phone back, the woman cornered Timu in the bathroom but he shoved her into a sliding door and slapped her hand away.
Timu swore at her and told her she was never getting her phone back, before leaving.
He was charged with sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and theft.
Timu said he went to the woman’s house to steal her phone for drug money and didn’t plan to sexually assault her, something Crown prosecutor Courtney Martyn rejected.
Martyn highlighted the extreme vulnerability of the victim and said Timu’s offending had a degree of detention and violence.
Timu’s lawyer Stephen Hembrow said his client had a “somewhat tragic” upbringing and had been abandoned by his family.
“He has been drifting on his own for a long time after what was a brutal childhood,” Hembrow told the judge.
Hembrow described his client as a “lost soul” who has been in and out of State care since he was a child and his methamphetamine use has got in the way of any “human-based feelings and emotions”.
He said Timu’s remorse is genuine and he had aspirations to get a job, own a car, and have a circle of friends but he accepted that a term of imprisonment was inevitable.
Judge Tom Gilbert said Timu’s “undoubtedly serious” offending had a huge impact on his victim, who now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
He acknowledged Timu’s difficult upbringing, which included abuse and led him to being homeless for most of his adult life.
Judge Gilbert gave Timu discounts for his early guilty pleas, difficult background and remorse, arriving at an end sentence of three years and 10 months’ imprisonment.
Stewart and Tricia Macpherson own the Stetson Group.