Nikki Frank attends the High Court at Auckland in September 2022, prior to his convicton on multiple rape charges. Photo / Dean Purcell
Nikki Frank attends the High Court at Auckland in September 2022, prior to his convicton on multiple rape charges. Photo / Dean Purcell
Warning: This story details sexual violence.
Two co-workers who were found guilty of rape in May after jurors viewed the duo’s own homemade videos of them committing the crime returned to court today as they were both sentenced to prison.
Justice Gerard van Bohemen ordered Nikki Alexander Frank, 47, to serve a 14-year sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of seven years. Peter John Haden, 63, was sentenced to 13 years with no minimum term of imprisonment, meaning he can start applying for parole after serving one-third of the term.
Prosecutors had asked that Frank be given a sentence of preventative detention - a rare indeterminate sentence aimed at protecting society from those who pose a significant and ongoing risk. But after a lengthy analysis, the judge declined.
Some details of the arguments and analysis cannot currently be reported for legal reasons.
“I do not accept you are a lost cause,” the judge told Frank. “I’m concerned a sentence of preventative detention may be treated as a low priority for treatment.”
Both men were charged with two counts of rape, four counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and two counts of making an intimate visual recording following the April 2021 incident.
The woman, now 44, told police she had been leaving the North Shore beach in a bikini when she met the duo parked nearby in their work van. They said they were builders and Haden offered her a painting job starting the next day, which she accepted.
They then smoked cannabis together inside the van and shared a drink in celebration of Frank’s birthday before visiting a liquor store and heading to a Northcote home. In addition to the cannabis and alcohol, the woman had taken the sedative zopiclone.
By the time they got to the Northcote residence, the woman said she was only semi-conscious and had to be carried upstairs before blacking out completely. When she next woke up, she was on the carpeted floor of the lounge in the process of being sexually assaulted.
“I didn’t know where I was, didn’t know where my clothes were,” the woman would later recall in a recorded police interview. “I was saying ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no.’”
Whenever she tried to move, she said, Frank would push her back down.
“...My mind, my words, my body - it didn’t matter, he just kept on going,” she said.
For two hours, the men took turns sexually abusing her, Frank making video clips on his phone that would later be played for jurors.
“She needs a break. I think she’s hurting,” Haden was recorded saying at one point, Frank responding: “I will be gentle.”
Peter Haden stands in the dock in the High Court at Auckland prior to his convictions for rape. Photo / Dean Purcell
They commented that she had a nice body and that they could make some money off the video.
“She appeared not to be in control of her body,” Justice van Bohemen noted today of the video.
Later that night, the victim reluctantly accepted a ride back to her hotel before calling 111, she would later tell police. Haden returned to the hotel the next day to pick her up for the job they had discussed and apologised for Frank’s behaviour, the court was told. She declined to go with him.
The allegations were put to two juries. The duo’s first trial was aborted in September 2022 for reasons that were suppressed at the time. A new trial began in May.
At both trials, the men claimed the sex was consensual, but the second jury rejected that claim and returned guilty verdicts on all counts.
Justice van Bohemen commended the woman for her bravery as she sat in court today for the sentencing.
“My life has been affected in every possible way,” she wrote in a victim impact statement that was read aloud by Crown prosecutor Sam Teppett. “I was robbed of my happy, confident, open-minded and friendly personality.
“Because of this change, I have no desire to leave my home except when I need to... Beaches used to be a happy place for me, but now I struggle to go.”
She still suffers nightmares about the rapes on a daily basis, she said.
In seeking preventative detention for Frank, prosecutors noted today that he has more than 60 prior convictions dating back to 1993.
While acknowledging it’s not an exact science, a psychologist who evaluated Frank found he was an above-average risk of sexual recidivism - four and a half times more likely than the typical male in New Zealand with a sexual offending history to re-offend. However, it was also noted the risk could be significantly reduced if he engages with treatment.
It was also noted risk tends to decline naturally after the age of 60. If not already in his 60s, he would likely be nearly there by the time he’s released, defence lawyer Claire Robertson noted.
The judge declined to give either of the men discounts off their final sentence for their background or remorse.
Frank described a difficult childhood in which he was abandoned by his birth father and beaten by his stepdad. He had been treated for psychotic symptoms in the past, but the episodes date back decades and appear to have been drug-induced.
Defence lawyer Lincoln Burns sought a modest discount for Haden, suggesting he might suffer from ADHD and autism, but the judge noted there was no official diagnosis of such. The judge also noted, although Haden didn’t seek it, that he would not be receiving a discount for remorse seeing as he appears to show none.
“He maintains his innocence,” Burns explained, adding that his client is “his own worst enemy” in that regard when it comes to future parole hearings. “It will keep him in custody, his stance.”
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.
