Note found by teen's body referred to sexual molester

When Katarina Roberts was found dead last year, police retrieved a note from beside her body that referred to a man earlier convicted of sexually molesting her.

Parts of the note were read by coroner Phillip Comber at an inquest in Levin on Tuesday into the death of Katarina, who died 11 days short of her 15th birthday.

Mr Comber said he would not read the entire note but quoted the phrases "what that bastard did to me" and "I love the world apart from the prick who made me do this".

Family friend Raina Neilsen, of Levin, said Katarina often confided in her and she was the first to be told about the molestation.

The information was passed on to the rest of the family, shocking them. The man was well known to them.

Mr Comber asked when Miss Neilsen first noticed Katarina was behaving strangely. Miss Neilsen replied that it was about the time the man was charged with sex offences.

Miss Neilsen said Katarina blamed herself for what had happened. She began to try to hurt herself. She burned herself, tried to hang herself and had slashed at the tendons of her wrists.

Asked if she thought Katarina's death was a direct result of what had happened to her, Miss Neilsen replied, "Yes."

Kathy Roberts, Katarina's mother, said her daughter had behaved like a normal young girl until she reached the age of 12, when she started to "get shitty" at times. She put this down to a stage in growing up until she learned of the attack on Katarina and was told that the man had been "touching" Katarina since she was 9 years old.

Katarina spent time at Porirua and Palmerston North mental health services, receiving treatment.

Things improved for a while once she started college, but around the second year, things began to go wrong again.

During this stage Katarina would sometimes wake up at night saying, "He's going to get me."

She continued to blame herself for the sex attacks and became paranoid.

"She thought that all the kids at school knew what had happened," said Ms Robert's partner, Pamela Hawea.

Katarina continued to hurt herself, and the family had taken to putting all rope and sharp things out of sight.

When the man was released on bail and allowed to return to Levin, Katarina became distraught.

"She would freak out if she saw him or even someone who looked like him, or a car that looked like his," Ms Hawea said. "Levin is only a little town, and we were annoyed that they let him come back."

Gordon Schwartfeger, of Levin, pleaded guilty to charges of sexual violation against Katarina on May 25 this year and was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.

An appeal against this sentence will be heard this month.

- NZPA