A woman attacked by a serial rapist is disgusted he has tried to get permission to move back to the region his offending took place. Photo / File
A woman attacked by a serial rapist is disgusted he has tried to get permission to move back to the region his offending took place. Photo / File
A recidivist rapist released on parole on the condition he did not enter Canterbury has failed in a bid to move into the region, to a small town where one of his victims has strong connections.
She said the prospect of Tavita Tuetue moving back near his “hunting ground” was “disturbing” - particularly when he could be using a different name after discovering his birth name was different to the name he was convicted under.
And the fact he had even tried to return anywhere near the “scene of the crime” was “a kick in the guts” to her and the other women he harmed.
Tuetue spent more than two decades behind bars after committing a horrifying series of sex attacks in Christchurch which began in 1980.
He was jailed several times before finally being sentenced to preventive detention - an open-ended prison term - in 2004.
Tuetue, now 66, was released in December 2021 and the Parole Board imposed a raft of conditions that will remain in place for the rest of his life including electronic monitoring and a ban from entering “the Canterbury area” and Wellington.
He was released to a supported accommodation specialist facility and at several monitoring hearings the Parole Board heard he was “doing very well”, complying with all of his conditions and the rules at his accommodation and participating in a reintegration programme.
Tuetue told the board he wanted to relocate to live with a supporter - in a rural Canterbury town.
Corrections told the Parole Board it supported the application and that Tuetue had made “significant progress with his rehabilitation and reintegration and has had good compliance to date”.
Further, it said the two victims living in New Zealand had been contacted and “have no objections” to the amended exclusion zone.
However, one woman said that was simply not true.
She told the board she was “disturbed” by the application, had not been contacted by Corrections about it and strongly opposed it.
She said she had family living near where Tuetue proposed to live and some relatives had business interests in the town.
She did not want to run the risk of seeing Tuetue and told the board that given one of his victims was a neighbour, she had concerns for the community.
Police also had “concerns” about the move, the board heard.
Tavita Tuetue is known for forcing entry into his victim’s properties and attacking them. Photo / File
Ultimately the board declined the application, saying there was not enough information presented to satisfy them the move would be safe.
The board said Tuetue could reapply in future but would need to provide “a more robust proposal”.
“Without pre-empting any decisions … it is likely that a board is going to struggle to agree to Mr Tuetue moving into the defined exclusion zone,” said board panel convenor Mary More.
Tuetue’s victim spoke to the Herald about the situation, saying the application was “an insult and a kick in the guts”.
“He basically wanted to return to his hunting ground,” she said.
“I don’t want him back in the Canterbury area at all … it’s pretty disrespectful that he even asked, given the fact he showed no mercy to his victims, showed no remorse.
“If he really had a moral compass, which I don’t think he does, he wouldn’t even be asking.”
She was also concerned that Tuetue would hide behind a new name.
In one of the Parole Board monitoring hearings it was revealed that Tuetue had “recently been informed that his proper family name is Fa’afoi”
“But he told us that the name Tuetue refers to his father’s chiefly status and he had no objection to our continuing to refer to him by that name which is used consistently throughout the Corrections’ records,” the board report stated.
The victim said using the alternative name could allow Tuetue to fly under the radar which she did not want to happen.
“My primary concern is that he can just effectively get on with his life … that he can use another name and nobody will know who he is and what he did,” she said.
“He’s got a long history of offending … he was pretty prolific … he’s just a creep.
“He gets out to live his life and and try to put his past behind him and probably use a new name, but I have to carry this all day, every day.
“This is not about villifying him, it’s about letting the community know because I would never forgive myself if this happened to somebody else.
Tavita Tuetue, also known as Fa'afoi, spent more than two decades in prison for raping women. Photo / 123RF
The woman appreciated the parole process and the fact that offenders had to live somewhere when released from prison - but said it was not acceptable for her attacker to be anywhere near her or places she frequently visited.
“None of us deserved what happened to us, I never thought in a million years it would ever happen … and I have serious misgivings that it won’t happen to someone else,” she said.
“It could have been far worse and I am grateful it wasn’t but I still have a horrible legacy to have to live with.
Tuetue’s litany of sexual offending
Tuetue’s offending in 1988 and 1994 resulted in convictions for unlawful sexual connection with a woman over 16, male rapes a woman over 16, and enters with intent.
“There were two separate incidents, Mr Tuetue forced entry into the victim’s properties, he confronted them in their beds and restrained them,” the Parole Board outlined in a report before his release.
