Tattoo artist Peter John Roberts has gone on trial in the New Plymouth District Court facing sex charges after allegedly groping and indecently touching female clients.
24 January 2022.. NZME photograph by Leighton Keith, Open Justice
Tattoo artist Peter John Roberts has gone on trial in the New Plymouth District Court facing sex charges after allegedly groping and indecently touching female clients.
24 January 2022.. NZME photograph by Leighton Keith, Open Justice
Warning: this story contains details of a sexual nature.
A teenager claims tattoo artist Shakey Pete persistently tried to pressure and guilt her into having sex with him despite her repeatedly rebutting his advances.
“I don’t know exactly when it started but he was making these weird, creepy sexual comments to me,” the 18-year-old said in a police interview.
The DVD interview was played in the New Plymouth District Court today as evidence in the trial of Peter John Roberts, a tattoo artist who worked in the United Kingdom and Australia as well as New Zealand.
Roberts, who is known within the industry as Shakey Pete, pleaded not guilty to seven charges, one of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and six of indecent assault when his trial got under way yesterday.
He is alleged to have carried out the offending against his two victims between January and the end of July 2020.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Patrick Mooney the first complainant, who alleged Roberts had groped her bottom at a tattoo session in January, conceded she only complained to police seven months later after being invited to join a private Facebook group where all sorts of allegations were being made about Roberts.
The teenager told a detective Roberts would send her messages on social media and make sexual comments about photos she posted.
“I would just delete them and not reply because I just felt so uncomfortable.
“It was weird to have a 40-year-old man following me on there. It was weird because ‘you are like my dad’s age, why are you doing that?’”
She said Roberts had offered to give her free tattoos and she took him up on his offer despite knowing serious allegations, including one of rape, had been made against him on social media platforms.
The sessions were usually at New Plymouth’s Brutal Ink studio on Mondays when the business was closed but the owner would let Roberts in.
“I didn’t feel comfortable but I thought it was a good opportunity, so I may as well.”
Two women, one a teenager, made allegations UK tattoo artist Peter Roberts sexually assaulted them while he worked in New Plymouth.
Roberts openly spoke about the allegations made against him in an attempt to convince her he was being framed by ex-girlfriends, she said.
“It made me trust him but I was scared of him for quite a while.”
She said Roberts would give her weird compliments about her “butt” and “boobs” and would always try to talk about when he was going to have sex with her.
After one session in June 2020, when Roberts was working on her back, she claimed he kept trying to pressure her into having sex with him and telling her it was okay because he had gloves on.
At the end of the appointment Roberts slapped her on the bottom, which she said wasn’t necessary for the tattooing.
“We were alone and I was scared and I didn’t know what to do.”
At a subsequent appointment in July, Roberts’s behaviour escalated and he again slapped her bottom before grabbing it and “squishing” it and telling the girl he wanted to bury his face in it, she claimed.
The teenager alleged Roberts indecently touched her genitals, forcing her to squeeze her legs shut to stop him.
“I was really uncomfortable and scared and just confused and like shocked as to what was happening.
“I didn’t expect him to go that far. I just felt really uncomfortable and gross.”
She didn’t complain to police immediately because she didn’t think it was enough to matter or how to approach it.
The teenager said she would never let Roberts think his behaviour or comments were alright.
“I said ‘I’m a child please don’t talk to me like this’.”
However she later confided in her boyfriend she had been sexually assaulted by Roberts.
Roberts was fired from the studio not long after.
The first complainant told Mooney she was invited to join the private Facebook group after she contacted one of the members when she became aware of allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
She acknowledged in the statement she made to police she had assumed Roberts was trying to put his fingers inside as he moved them around her inner thigh.
The woman also admitted she was trying to paint as bad a picture of Roberts to police as she could.
“I guess so, I guess I was, yes.”
She said she had a more negative view of Roberts after a tattoo session in January and the posts on social media just confirmed her feelings.
When re-examined by Crown solicitor Cherie Clarke the woman admitted the social media posts had influenced her decision to come forward and make a complaint.
“It was happening to other people and I felt like I should do something.
