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The grooming allegedly started about 1978 at an Avondale state house, with rough play, the singling-out of the complainant from other children and an ominous insistence that she be able to keep a secret “game” from her mum.
It would later escalate, the now-adult complainant told police 40 years later, in Whangārei when the then-8-year-old was pinned to her new bed, strangled and touched inappropriately as adults gathered outside for a three-day housewarming party.
“My tears were overflowing into his hand,” the woman said of the alleged Whangārei sexual abuse during an hours-long 2019 police interview that was played for jurors today at the ongoing trial of Taiawa Harawira. “I was so scared I nearly pissed my pants.
“I was s*** scared. I was terrified of him by then.”
Harawira, who belongs to one of New Zealand’s most prominent families of Māori rights activists, has pleaded not guilty in Auckland District Court to 44 counts in total, spanning an alleged four-year period of abuse: 30 counts of indecency with a child, four counts of threatening to kill, six counts of injuring with intent to injure and four counts of rape.
The defence has not yet had a chance to present its case, but his lawyers put their stance bluntly to jurors during a brief address yesterday: the woman is lying.
Until this week’s trial, Harawira, 67, would have been known for his family connections - the son of late social justice icon Titewhai Harawira and brother of former Māori Party MP Hone Harawira. Jurors were told about his family’s activist credentials at the outset of the trial yesterday, with prosecutors explaining the alleged abuse took place against the backdrop of political unrest in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Taiawa Harawira stands outside Whakapara Marae near Whangārei in January 2011. Photo / Malcolm Pullman
The defendant, who would have been about 22 at the time at the time the offending was alleged to have started, was frequently asked to look after the many children whose families gathered during the planning stages for protests and a hīkoi, prosecutors have said.
“He was always so softly spoken and nice,” his accuser said of the defendant’s demeanour around other adults, recalling her childhood perception of his charisma. “Everyone thought he was a good person.”
But when the two were alone, a violent and vindictive personality would emerge, the complainant told police.
The woman said Harawira would pick up her and other children by the neck and pin them to the wall, but she and others at first thought it was a game. Play-fighting became a regular thing when he was looking after her, and even when she didn’t want to he’d order her to do so, she said.
“We’re going to start doing some special things on our own,” she recalled him eventually telling her, with her asking if it was another game he was referring to.
“Yeah,” he is alleged to have responded. “It’s like truth or dare. The truth is you can’t tell anybody about what we’re going to do.”
She said she “just gave in” after the defendant described in detail how he would go about killing her mother if she told anyone.
“[He’d threaten], ‘I’m going to stab her with a knife,’ or, ‘I’m going to make her car crash,’ [or], ‘I’m going to stab your mum to death and you aren’t going to have no mum,’” the woman said. “I became quite withdrawn quite quickly, but Mum always thought I was going through a stage.”
Harawira, she said, would frequently enforce the threat even when others were around, whispering to her: “Don’t forget what I said to you, because I’ll make it happen.”
Taiawa Harawira stands outside Whakapara Marae near Whangārei in January 2011. Photo / Malcolm Pullman
Most of the police interview involved graphic descriptions of each alleged incident. The abuse would also happen in the toilet and the communal sleeping area of the marae, the woman said, describing another incident inside Harawira’s car after he drove her to the store to get lollies.
“You’ve got to do something for me if you want all these things,” he told her, according to the woman’s account to police.
“I cried most of the night because I felt so gross,” she recalled. “I just felt so gross.”
The interview viewing is expected to continue tomorrow, when the trial resumes before Judge Mary Beth Sharp and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
