Mama Hooch survivor gives her victim impact statement to the court. Video / George Heard
The “predatory” rapist brothers behind a long-running campaign of drink spiking and sexual assaults at Christchurch bar Mama Hooch have been sentenced to some of the most significant prison terms ever handed down for such offending.
Roberto Jaz has been sentenced to 17 years behind bars for offending against eight women.
Danny Jaz has been sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in prison for drugging and or violating 19 women.
And they have been ordered to serve a minimum of half of their sentences before they are eligible for parole.
“The level of your offending is unknown in this country ... you helped yourself to young women with callous disregard for their rights and their dignity,” said Judge Paul Mabey.
The men were handed their fate after a long day in court where nine survivors of their “disgusting” crimes read emotional but powerful impact statements.
Today, neither showed any sign - at all - of emotion.
They sat in the dock side-by-side stony-faced and unmoved by anything said to or about them.
Danny Jaz sported a black eye.
Brothers Danny Jaz (left), and Roberto Jaz will today be sentenced on a raft of charges. Photo / George Heard
The courtroom was packed with survivors and their supporters along with police who worked on the investigation into the brothers, dubbed Operation Sinatra.
A second courtroom was allocated for further survivors and supporters with a live audio-visual link to the sentencing.
The sex-offending siblings’ brother Davide Jaz is present in court - the first time anyone has attended a hearing to support them.
Among the women set to read their impact statements are the main victims - the former Mama Hooch staffer the brothers were convicted of raping and the two then-18-year-olds whose complaint to police sparked the chain of events that led to today’s sentencing.
“Emotionally this experience has completely rewired my brain… this is something I will carry for life.
“Danny, you have damaged me. My outlook on life is skewed because of what you thought you were entitled to - my body and my choices.
Roberto Jaz, 38, (left) and Danny Jaz, 40, (right) were convicted of 69 charges. Photo / George Heard
“We have waited so long to tell our story, have our validation and have our justice… Knowing that no other woman will ever be in danger of the Jaz brothers was my purpose.”
The woman told the court that her experience has made her rethink her career path.
She now wants to join the police.
“I want to protect and support anyone who finds themselves in my position,” she said.
“I want to fight for women, fight for them to be believed, fight for them to be safe in our cities and towns.”
Survivor Two: stupefied and indecently assaulted by Danny Jaz
“When the offending happened, I remember feeling all sorts of emotions, feeling numb, shock was one, shocked that I couldn’t believe what had just happened,” she said.
“To this day, I’m still struggling.”
She has suffered from depression and been on medication on and off since the attack.
“This process has been tough - mentally and physically draining... The offending against me has changed me. I struggle with it. I’m fearful and vigilant.
She turned to Danny Jaz and said: “I feel utterly sad for you.”
Survivor Three: Sophie Brown, stupefied and sexually violated by Danny Jaz
Brown , who waived her right to automatic and permanent name suppression, told the court that her assault led to “some of the darkest days” of her life and for a long time she feared being alone.
“The times when I couldn’t deceive myself into believing nothing had happened, I was filled with sadness, shame, embarrassment, fear, emptiness.
“I searched for constant distraction, which has even sometimes meant self-sabotaging my life to live in chaos in order to avoid the silence,” she said.
“You stole my fierce independence from me. You stole my right to feel safe in my own mind from me. And you stole my right to autonomy over my own body away from me.”
Brown acknowledged Danny Jaz had a young daughter and turned to him to deliver powerful words.
“She’ll be 19 one day, and you’ve made sure that she continues to live in a world where women are exploited,” she said.
“She continues to live in a world full of men like you who believe women owe you the privilege of access to their own bodies, irrespective of whether she wants to or not.
“She continues to live in a world where the chances of her encountering a man like you are one in four.”
While Brown still struggled with her attack, she refused to let Danny Jaz ruin her life.
“Don’t assume you’re anything more than worthless,” she told him.
“I’m still a confident tenacious and strong woman who will continue to rise miles above you because I deserve a happy and meaningful life - the opposite of what you deserve.”
“I’ve often taken pride in the fact that I’ve never taken recreational drugs. That has always been my personal choice to never take them. I was so deeply disappointed this choice was taken without my permission.
“This has been very frightening for me. This has caused me a significant amount of stress by the loss of power over my body.
“The feeling of injustice, indescribable.”
Danny Jaz in the dock at sentencing. Photo / George Heard
Survivor Five: stupefied by the Jaz brothers
“In the aftermath of the events, I experienced immense mental disarray and emotional distress,” she said.
“At the time I was living alone and felt isolated and terrified, grappling with intrusive thoughts and panic attacks for a prolonged period. Eating and sleeping became challenging and my mental health deteriorated to the point where the police were called to my residence due to concerns for my well-being.
She said she suffered panic attacks that left her feeling “suffocated and unable to breathe”.
“The long-term impact on my mental health and well-being has been severe.
“I am sceptical and fearful of others frequently, hypervigilant about my surroundings and the people I encounter.
“I have a general lack of trust and often feel unsafe, which has had a long-term effect on my ability to grow and maintain relationships with others.”
Survivor Six: stupefied by the Jaz brothers, indecently assaulted by Danny Jaz
“This experience has made me question everything that I thought I knew,” she said.
“I feel apprehensive and on edge. When there are males around me I am constantly checking to ensure no one is standing too close so that they could drive more drugs.
“I feel I’m hypervigilant now… this is not only extremely tiring but also has taken the joy and happiness I used to experience in socialising with my friends.
Judge Paul Mabey KC will sentence the Jaz brothers later today. Photo / George Heard
Survivor Eight: drugged and indecently assaulted by Roberto Jaz
“The event was 2018, 3 days after my 18th birthday, I was targeted by a predator,” said Penny after her friend finished giving her statement.
“What this man did to me was violent.
“It’s a disgusting act performed on a young, helpless teenage girl who was unable to consent that night.
“He took my innocence when he decided to violate my innocent young body.”
Penny said her trauma was intensified because she had to watch her friend get assaulted - powerless to stop what was happening.
“He knew that the drug would incapacitate us so he could do whatever he wanted to us - getting his twisted sexual pleasures and violent pleasures out of us,” she said.
“I still have some memory of the events - it’s affected me so greatly, it haunts me every day, but over the years, I’ve been learning how to cope.
“You left me feeling like a man will always hurt me. I always feel like I’m nothing - like that feeling I got when you left me laying on the floor or in the booth.”
She turned to Roberto Jaz and directed a powerful message at him.
“Now you have no power over me,” she said.
“Who will you become now, apart from a serial sex offender with your name out there for the crimes that you have committed.
“Knowing that is a liberating feeling for us, all that stand against you.”
Survivor Nine: drugged, raped, assaulted and filmed by the Jaz brothers
“I was 21 years old. I had just graduated... I was excited about the future,” she said.
“I was an outgoing person with an openness to meeting new people, visiting new places and an eagerness to create and establish an independent lifestyle.
“In April 2017, my whole world changed... I was drugged, raped, violated and filmed by two men who I considered to be my employers.
“After the assault... Every time I got into the shower or changed clothes and looked down at my body, I was reminded of the night that you chose to take my autonomy away from me.
“I remember getting in the shower the next day and scrubbing my skin hoping that the repulsive feeling I could wash away.
“I found myself left with emotional injuries that would only increase in severity.
“The longer the time went on, my body didn’t feel like mine anymore. I went from somebody who liked who I was to someone who was repulsed with what I saw in the mirror.
“It got so bad that I contemplated taking my life more than once and started thinking of the least painful ways to go.”
She said the sex offending siblings had harmed her “physically, emotionally, psychologically” and “robbed” her of her right to self-love.
“You took away my trust and you took away my right to live as a young carefree woman without fear,” she said.
Crown Prosecutor Andrew McRae will seek a lengthy stint in prison for the Jaz brothers. Photo / George Heard
“After the incident, I broke the hearts of my mother, my father, my brothers, my friends in telling them what you did to me - and not once have you taken any accountability for what you’ve done.
‘But I need to make it very clear that despite all of this, you didn’t take anything from me that I haven’t recovered from in great strides.
“I have regained so much after what you did. I have retaught myself to love and feel love.... Despite my scars, I am so loved and supported... I can finally say that I feel this dark cloud clearing.”
The woman thanked the police who she said “worked countless hours fighting for justice, for myself and others” and the Crown Prosecutors who “ensure I felt as calm as possible in such an intimidating environment”.
“They have worked incredibly hard to hold these men accountable,” she said.
She told the rapists:
“This incident will not be who I am - and my trauma is not who I am.
“You are not a part of who I am and you can’t make a difference anymore.”
In the 169-page judgement, he said Danny and Roberto Jaz had an “arrogant, entitled and hubristic approach” to young women who came within their orbit and were “indifferent to their rights and indifferent to consent”.
“During the conduct of their business at Mama Hooch hose women were seen as fair game - with the defendants being indifferent to consent and indifferent to the rights of the women, the brave survivors,” McRae said.
“The Crown say that this is sustained predatory behaviour, where the defendants used their business premises, really as a way to target the vulnerable.
“Those patrons were entitled to the trust - for all intents and purposes - of the people that were running the bar, at any given time.
‘That trust was essentially destroyed for the defendant’s own self-interest.”
Davide Jaz entering the courthouse for the sentencing of his brothers Roberto and Danny Jaz. Photo / George Heard
McRae said the offenders used social media messaging “across a, a wide friend group” to “brag about their exploits”.
“It essentially encouraged them to have greater and greater levels of brazenness in relation to their offending.
“And that was completely without any consideration of the consent or of the willingness of their victims.”
He said the offending had “major” effects on each survivor.
“And indeed, it was only through the courage of those survivors that the true scale of what had been going on at the bar and at, at the neighbouring restaurant... were brought to light,” McRae told the court.
“The offending occurred over a relatively lengthy period of time... and even as we look at it today, five years on, there’s really no real appreciation from the defendants in terms of the effects of the offending upon those survivors upon those of those victims.
“There’s no real remorse. There’s no insight into the behaviours that actually caused the offending.”
A hefty sentence for “callous” predators with no remorse
Judge Mabey began the formal part of the sentencing exercise after the lunch break.
He said Roberto Jaz offended against eight women and Danny Jaz was convicted of drugging and or violating 19 women.
In four cases the women and both men were involved in the offending.
The judge first spoke about the impact on the survivors.
“You should both be a no doubt that you’ve severely damaged all of your victims by your predatory and heartless offending, driven by arrogance, misguided self-belief, and a complete lack of respect for the rights of those you’ve offended against, he said.
“The statements read in court and the ones that I have separately read have a similar theme - young women enjoying life are now even after so many years, anxious, fearful and having flashbacks, some have even had to leave Christchurch.
“The consistent theme was the darkness.”
He said the damage “infiltrates” beyond the women - to their closest family and friends.
“You have seen first-hand now what you’ve done,” said the judge.
“And although neither of you has expressed any remorse or empathy or understanding or feelings - perhaps what you’ve observed today has hit home in some way. And I hope for your sake it has.”
“You knew of the drugs associated with sexual offending and you had those drugs, you bragged about using them.
“Both of you demonstrated through your words and your actions, the callous and predatory disregard for the young women you offended against.”
When interviewed Roberto Jaz claimed to “respect women”.
“You said you were brought up to respect people and treat them well,” said Judge Mabey.
“That may be your view of yourself - but it is a misguided view. You showed no respect to the woman who drugged and offended against over a 3.5-year period.
“If you genuinely consider yourself as someone who respects and treats people well, you will need considerable rehabilitation to bring yourself to the reality of your own character.
“Your denial of your offending and your denial of your motivation is as misguided… you lie, you minimise, you demonstrated that arrogant belief that you could talk your way out of anything.”
He said Roberto’s continued explanation that any sexual activity was “consensual” was “a fantasy”.
“It was an astounding demonstration of the hubris entitlement which ultimately led to your downfall.”
You are sexual predators - judge blasts rapist brothers
Judge Mabey said the men “heartlessly exploited” their victims.
He said while letters of support had been provided to the court from a number of people stating the brothers were “fine-hearted, decent and respectful people” - he was unconvinced.
“You are not men of good character - you are sexual predators,” he said
“Perhaps misogynistic attitudes and the patriarchal approach to life within your family may have engendered a new, an unhealthy attitude to women.
“You make conscious decisions to exploit and abuse your victims… You were men in your 30s… what occurred was a continuous course of conduct over a period of 3.5 years.”
Judge Mabey said an example of the planning that went into the offending was the rape of the Jaz brothers’ former employee.
“Your sexual interest in her was demonstrated on the day she commenced employment with you and it was a year later… that you both decided that she would be exploited for sexual purposes,” he said.
“She was vulnerable - as were all of your victims who were drugged for sexual purposes.
He said while Roberto’s offences were more serious, Danny’s were more widespread.
He had more victims, more charges and he was “more active” and “more determined” in his offending.
“Your actions towards all of your victims were predatory - you were ready for the opportunity to drug patrons and then boldly and brazenly positioned yourself, having observed them, so you were alone with them,” Judge Mabey said.
“That is a particularly aggravating factor as it guarantees vulnerability - these young women simply could not fight back,” he said.
Judge Mabey said there was little credit he could give to reduce the starting points
However he could not deny the men a small reduction for guilty pleas entered and “previous good character” before they started offending.
The complaint led to dozens more women coming forward and a major police investigation dubbed Operation Sinatra.
The Jaz brothers were arrested and charged in 2018 and went on trial in February this year.
They had elected trial by jury but three days before the process was set to begin they changed their position and sought trial by Judge Mabey alone.
Two other men were charged alongside the Jaz brothers. One was acquitted on all sex and drug charges except one of offering to supply a Class B drug. He was discharged without conviction. The other was acquitted on a single sexual assault charge.
Throughout, he lambasts the predatory brothers saying they had a consistent and established propensity to “show a sexual interest in, and to target for sexual purposes, patrons and staff of Mama Hooch”.
Further, the siblings had an “arrogant, entitled and hubristic approach” to young women who came within their orbit and were “indifferent to their rights and indifferent to consent”.
