The girl carries a lifetime of trauma. Photo / Getty Images
"I knew in my heart something wasn't right."
It was a feeling that led a Far North woman and her partner to save a 15-year-old girl from being sold for sex.
With the blessing of the girl's family, the woman has told of how a 36-year-old Far North man won a whānau's trust and used it to exploit their teenage daughter.
The man – later revealed as a convicted rapist - used the girl for his own sexual gratification while also selling her to other men for sex.
"She's still suffering. She's trying hard to hold it together," the woman said. "It's not her fault, it's not the mother's fault, it's not the father's fault, it's not this family's fault, it's not the community's fault. It's one guy."
That one man, who has name suppression, was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years and 10 months in jail for 21 charges that included indecent assault, sexual exploitation and unlawful sexual connection.
His sentencing is the sequel to a string of other cases that showed what happened when a vulnerable child was offered to others for sex. An online classified advertisement drew four men from Kaitaia to Auckland to pay for sex with the girl.
The woman said: "We're sharing this story because we want everyone to know how easy it was for this man to infiltrate a whole community."
The man was aged 35 when she first met him. It was at work and he had been recently hired. His manner of speaking about women marked the man as a "sketchy guy", so she kept her distance.
And it would have stayed that way when an injury stopped her working - until a quirk of fate brought them together again.
A late-night knock on her door revealed a young woman she'd once helped find work. She was the eldest daughter in a family whose rental home had been sold with only a single day's notice.
"We had this big, beautiful home and it was the right thing to do to give them somewhere to live," the woman said.
The next day the mum, dad, 15-year-old daughter and sons started to move in.
With them came the man who had so disgusted her at work. Striding into her home, she says "he's like, 'I'm just helping the fams out, I've been hanging out with them'".
Initially, she saw a mother trying to cope and the man helping. It was when his help turned to staying the night that she raised concerns, only to be assured by the mother as to his good intentions. And, it emerged, he had stayed with the family for a month before they lost their home.
The mother and younger girl also explained how the man had been helping the daughter cope with earlier traumas.
"He absolutely groomed the mum first," the woman said. In the first week of living together, the couple watched as the man offered to cook so the mum could spend time with her husband. Then he began offering to do the shopping, then driving the boys and finally, with the girl, he said, "I'll take her to school."
As he wormed his way into their confidence, the girl started skipping school to go fishing, or run errands, with the man.
When he brought her home "absolutely wasted" late one night, she could stay silent no longer, telling the parents she would offer support when they confronted him the next day.
It failed. "The guy knew the family were vulnerable and he knew exactly how vulnerable they were and how to exploit all of those vulnerabilities."
His abuse of their trust - and the girl's vulnerability - moved to physical breaches. Court documents show it began with inappropriate physical contact and graduated to the man entering the girl's room, after her parents went to bed, for sex. There were times when he didn't wait for her to wake before forcing himself on the girl.
On one occasion, the girl's 14-year-old friend was asleep on the floor and awoke to noises in the room. Asked if she want to join in, she declined. The man forced himself on her anyway.
Over three months, the man sexually abused the 15-year-old. He entered her room when the household was asleep, or took advantage in cars and vans.
The abuse intensified with an online advertisement on Locanto.co.nz - "Young couple looking for an older gent to have sex with young girlfriend rewards or cash could help ... "
Court documents show nine men contacted the man in less than a week via a mobile number provided in the advert. One offered $150 for the girl, a group of six offering $100 each for group sex.
These transactions didn't go ahead. Others did, with four men convicted for their contact with the girl.
Kaitaia businessman Marcus Barker, 55, spotted the advert the day it went online and texted to express interest in sex with the young girl. Barker, owner of Barkers Cleaning, asked how old she was, later claiming he thought the comment about her age to be a joke.
He offered to pay the man $150 and the trio met the following day. Barker had sex with the girl in the back of her mother's van, while the man filmed the encounter.
Barker discussed a repeat transaction, this time offering an unused fishing rod and reel for access to the girl. They settled on the rod, reel and $100 for a return engagement but it amounted to nothing, only earning police attention and Barker's arrest.
Calvin Fairburn, 37, from Kerikeri, had sex with the girl on his living room mattress twice. He paid the man $180 for the experience. Fairburn never asked about the girl's age, even though the man told him he would be accompanying her because she was only young.
Later, when told she was only 15, Fairburn said that was okay - as long as it was kept discreet.
Kawakawa stalwart and family man Owen Sigley, 66, sent a text how much "cash for fun". The price, he was told, was $150. In one message exchange, the former owner of Owen Sigley Radiators asked if the girl's parents minded her having sex for money, after being told she still lived at home.
The man replied that her parents didn't know. When Sigley was told the girl was 16, the Kawakawa local asked if that was even legal. The text response read: "hahaha thats y u don't tell anyone and pay cash."
Court documents described Sigley's efforts to find out the girl's true age as "superficial". He eventually stopped asking and had sex with the girl as the man filmed them.
On February 7, Auckland Pentecostal church leader Michael Weitenberg, 55, made contact. The founder and pastor of Futurecaster Church, based on Auckland's North Shore, was concerned the girl was "very young" based on her photo.
"U sure she is 16," Weitenberg messaged. Then later: "She looks good but I looked it up and it's illegal to do it for $ under 18. I don't want that risk."
Inside an hour, he messaged: "F**k it.....lets do it."
With $150 cash, Weitenberg met with the pair on a secluded track. He preferred to spend his money on receiving oral sex and voyeurism as he watched the girl and the man together. After they parted, Weitenberg texted to ask to meet again.
Instead of a second encounter, Weitenberg was arrested.
By now, the impact on the girl was showing at home. The woman spoke of how she was "lashing out and retreating to her room", of how "she didn't want him anywhere near her".
"Every now and then I'd say to her, look you can always tell us if there is something going on."
The woman and her partner's concerns had deepened to the point they knew they had to take action. Just before they left for a five-day trip, they told the parents they expected the man to be gone by the time they returned.
And as they got into their car to leave, the girl ran out and begged them not to go.
"I knew in my heart there was something majorly wrong but not the extent that we know now," the woman said.
When they returned, frustrations at the man's behaviour led to a number of people in the community approaching her. She set up a confrontation, asking them to come to their house at a specific time.
When that time arrived, and with a crowd gathered on the balcony of her home, she went inside to tell the man: "I've got some people here who want to see you."
When he emerged, the woman proceeded to - in front of a crowd of disgruntled and now surprised guests - interrogate the man about his behaviour with the teenage girl.
"I pretty much just ripped into him and said, 'do you think it's right that you're sleeping in a room with a 15-year-old girl. Have you been having sex with her?'."
The man denied everything - until the girl stood up and, for the first time ever, blurted out everything he had done to her.
The man fled, a short-lived escape during which his cell phone fell out. The woman grabbed it, thinking "he might be dumb enough to have [evidence] on his phone".
But it was the girl's school laptop that revealed some of the most powerful pieces of evidence.
"He'd uploaded videos onto there and that's how I got to see three of the videos he'd made of her. In one of those videos … she is unconscious," the woman said.
Barker faced a maximum of 10 years in prison but received 12 months' home detention and was again made to pay the girl – but this time in a legal manner – a $1000 reparation for emotional harm.
A month earlier, Weitenberg and Sigley, 67, both admitted receiving commercial sexual services from the 15-year-old. Weitenberg was sentenced to six months' home detention with conditions including monitored access to and use of the internet.
Sigley was sentenced to nine months' home detention and ordered to pay $1000 in reparation to the teenager.
Fairburn was sentenced in the same court, two months later, to 10 months' home detention and ordered to pay $1500 reparation to the victim.
For the girl, the aftermath is a life of uncertainty. The family have moved multiple times – leaving accommodation filled with gang members, finding they were in close proximity to a registered child sex offender, and facing paying $550 a week for a one-bedroom unit in an emergency housing motel.
The whistleblower who forced a confrontation finds only frustration with the sentences given to those who took advantage of the girl.
Her blood boils when she relives Barker's September sentencing in the Kaikohe District Court where Judge Deidre Orchard said he deserved a discount for his early guilty plea, police co-operation, lack of prior convictions and genuine good character.
The girl carries a lifetime of trauma. "But Marcus Barker gets to go to work every day."
How to get help
>Anyone with concerns can call police on 111 with immediate concerns, or on 105 with non-urgent matters.
Information could also be provided anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
If you're in danger now:
• Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours of friends to ring for you.
• Run outside and head for where there are other people.
• Scream for help so that your neighbours can hear you.
• Take the children with you.
• Don't stop to get anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay
Where to go for help or more information:
• Women's Refuge: Free national crisis line operates 24/7 - 0800 refuge or 0800 733 843 www.womensrefuge.org.nz
• Shine, free national helpline 9am- 11pm every day - 0508 744 633 www.2shine.org.nz
• It's Not Ok: Information line 0800 456 450 www.areyouok.org.nz
• Shakti: Providing specialist cultural services for African, Asian and middle eastern women and their children. Crisis line 24/7 0800 742 584
• Ministry of Justice: www.justice.govt.nz/family-justice/domestic-violence
• National Network of Stopping Violence: www.nnsvs.org.nz
• White Ribbon: Aiming to eliminate men's violence towards women, focusing this year on sexual violence and the issue of consent. www.whiteribbon.org.nz
How to hide your visit
Where to get help:
• If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
• If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone call the confidential crisis helpline Safe to Talk on: 0800 044 334 or text 4334.
• Alternatively contact your local police station
• If you have been abused, remember it's not your fault.
Ataria Heta later died of a suspected suicide. Her family want more help for teens.