Jail term increased for Kasmeer Lata - mother who sold teen daughter for sex more than 1000 times

A woman who sold her teenage daughter to strangers for sex up to five times a day will serve more time in prison after the Solicitor-General successfully appealed her sentence.

In March Kasmeer Lata, 36, was jailed for six years and 11 months for dealing in slaves, dealing in a person under 18 for sexual exploitation, and receiving earnings from commercial sexual services from an underage person.

Justice Matthew Muir also imposed a minimum period of imprisonment of three years and five months.

Lata, 36, had first forced her daughter to have sex for money with a man on her 15th birthday. She would go on to sell the girl at least 1000 times for sex.

The victim later spoke exclusively to the Herald about her ordeal, and how she felt to be free from her mother's offending and a life of fear and misery.

The maximum sentence for dealing in slaves under New Zealand laws is 14 years' imprisonment.

Kasmeer Lata, 36, was originally jailed for six years and 11 months.

At Lata's sentencing - where she was described as "the most despised woman in New Zealand" - Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker called for the offending to be denounced in the most explicit terms.

Justice Muir said Lata's offending caused "long-lasting, if not irreparable damage to her daughter" as she "effectively pimped her out".

In October that sentence was appealed by the Solicitor-General.

The appeal was heard in Auckland by Justice Brendan Brown, Justice Patricia Courtney and Justice Sarah Katz.

Deputy Solicitor General Brendan Horsley said the sentence handed down did not reflect the seriousness of Lata's offending and Justice Muir was, effectively, too lenient.

Today the Court of Appeal released its decision - the appeal was allowed and Lata will serve more time.

Her original sentence of six years and 11 months' imprisonment was quashed - and substituted with a sentence of 10 years and three months' imprisonment.

Lata's minimum period of imprisonment of three years and five months was also quashed and replaced with a lengthier term of five years.

Justice Brown said Lata's offending fell "squarely within the category of the most serious of cases".

"The sexual exploitation in this case was both intensive and prolonged... it necessitated high and continuous levels of premeditation," said Justice Brown.

The Court of Appeal judges agreed with Horsley that Justice Muir's starting point for Lata's sentence was "manifestly inadequate".

Lata's partner Avneensh Sehgal was also sentenced in relation to the offending.

Justice Graham Lang said Sehgal's culpability was less than Lata's, who forced her daughter into prostitution, but still significant given the lasting effects the pair's offending will have on the teen.

He sentenced Sehgal to four years and eight months' imprisonment with a minimum period of two years and four months.

When the teenager shared her story with the Herald she said her mother manipulated her into having sex with almost 1000 men.

The first time was on her 15th birthday.

"I felt that I had to do it," she said.

"I had to do what I was told, what my mother said.

"I didn't want to."

The 18-year-old, who has permanent name suppression, said there were parts of her story she did not want to speak about - they were simply too traumatising.

But she shared details of her life and her spiral into daily sex work.

"I told my mum I didn't want to do it… after three months I said the time period had finished and I didn't want to do it anymore, but she refused to let me stop.

"A couple of times after that I said I didn't want to do it too."

Lata placed advertisements for her daughter - in which she lied about her age - on the New Zealand Girls online escort agency website, other sites and in the Herald.

She would have sex with men at the family home.

But as more men began to request the teen her mother began taking her to motels around Auckland for as many as five "appointments" per day, each appointment costing up to $200 per hour.

"I felt vulnerable, I didn't know what to do," the teenager said.

"I was scared.

"I knew what was happening, but I didn't know why.

"I was worried that if I kept doing it no one would want to marry me - no one wants to marry a woman who has slept with hundreds of men."

The victim said she knew what her mother was doing was wrong but she was too afraid to tell anyone.