Woman told police she made tattoo artist hurry up and finish after alleged inappropriate touching

Tattoo artist Peter John Roberts is before the New Plymouth District Court facing sex charges. Photo / Leighton Keith

Warning: this story contains details of a sexual nature.

A female client told police she felt so uncomfortable where a tattoo artist was placing his hands that she told him he needed to finish up because she was over it.

Peter John Roberts, a tattoo artist who has worked in the United Kingdom and Australia as well as New Zealand, went on trial before Judge Gregory Hikaka and a jury of five men and seven women in the New Plymouth District Court on Monday.

He is facing one charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and six of indecent assault. The offending is alleged to have taken place between January and the end of July 2020. Roberts entered not guilty pleas to all charges as the trial, which is set down for up to five days, got under way.

In her DVD interview with police in August 2020, the woman said she had gone to Roberts’ secret studio after meeting him while he had previously worked at two studios in New Plymouth.

Near the end of her session she claimed Roberts had put his hand on her “bum” in a groping way before moving it towards her inner-thigh and then touching her genitals over her underwear.

“I got quite grumpy with him and told him he needed to finish what he was doing because I wanted to leave,” she told police.

“I assumed he was trying to put them inside of me and that’s when I called it off.”

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the officer she couldn’t believe what Roberts was doing and didn’t want to make things worse because he was standing over her while doing the tattoo.

“I didn’t tell him to move his hand away, I just said ‘we needed to finish this because I’m over it’.”

Roberts had also repeatedly made comments about the woman having a “really lovely bum”, she said.

She had had about 10 sessions with Roberts but they had always been at a tattoo studio where other people were around.

During the previous sessions Roberts had spoken openly about how “all these woman were trying to ruin his life”, she told the detective.

“He just always complained about how all these women were trying to ruin his life.”

She had also claimed to have seen comments on social media about Roberts behaving inappropriately with female clients and a post claiming he was wanted in multiple countries for being inappropriate with women.

Earlier Crown prosecutor Rebekah Hicklin, in her opening address, told the jury Roberts moved to New Plymouth in 2019 where he worked for Brothers Ink before moving to Brutal Ink.

Hicklin said while working on one of the two female complainants in July Roberts is alleged to have made weird, creepy sexual comments to her as well as trying to pressure and guilt her into having sex with him.

Hicklin said Roberts told the teenager it was okay for him to be intimately touching her because he had gloves on.

He continued to grab her buttocks and allegedly told her he wanted to bury his face into her butt.

“She told him ‘don’t do that I’m in a relationship’.”

It’s claimed Roberts told the teenager the tattoo would hurt more if she declined to have sex with him.

Hicklin told the jury three women from the United Kingdom, who made complaints to police in 2016, 2017 and 2018, will give evidence about things Roberts had said and done while tattooing them.

Hicklin said there were similarities between the comments made by Roberts and his actions which showed he had a sexual interest in his female clients and an intent to perform sexual activity on them.

In his opening address to the jury defence lawyer Patrick Mooney said he wanted to give them some things to think about as the trial progressed in the coming days.

Mooney told the jury they would learn about the power and sometimes the evil of social media.

There was a group of people using social media platforms and feeding off each other’s stories to make a strong and determined effort to bring Roberts down, he said.

While their stories could be shown to be untrue, Mooney said it didn’t stop the group and they still all fed into it.

He encouraged the jury to assess if the evidence given by the two complainants was reliable and consistent.

Mooney said the three witnesses from the UK had no direct knowledge of what had happened to the two women in New Plymouth and asked the jury to question whether their evidence was reliable and relevant.