Traumatised sex tape victim 'wants to forget it'

Haimona Gardiner is Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia's private secretary. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A woman is traumatised after being filmed in a sex tape by Haimona Gardiner, a young Maori Party leader, her new partner says.

Gardiner, 25, used the recording to clear his name after police questioned his involvement with the 43-year-old woman in Wellington in March.

Gardiner pleaded guilty on May 31 to intentionally making an intimate visual recording of a woman, which carries a three-year maximum prison term.

He was given diversion and was discharged without conviction.

News of the scandal became public while Gardiner was on a two-week trip to the United States as part of a delegation of young parliamentary leaders.

Gardiner, who is Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia's private secretary, failed to inform the American Council of Young Political Leaders, which organised the trip, about the charges he was facing. His return business class flights to the US were paid for by the taxpayer.

The woman still does not remember much about the events of the night but her boyfriend is angry.

"I thought he was just sick. No male should do anything like that to another female," he said.

"He was an ambassador for the country, visiting the White House, touring the United States, and his crime has been swept under the carpet. His expenses are paid for. My tax pays for that and so does [hers] ... He gets to carry on with his career and she goes through that hurt and agony and all that crap."

The Wellington man, who began a relationship with his partner since the incident, said he was desperate for her to receive counselling.

"This has traumatised her. She is a beautiful-looking woman and I don't want anything happening to her.

"She needs counselling but no one has offered. I am just trying to support her."

He said his partner, who moved back to New Zealand a few years ago after living in Australia, hadn't been able to return to work since the incident.

"She doesn't trust males, full-stop. She just wants to forget it and I don't blame her. She has lots of nightmares."

Police launched an investigation after a member of the public found the woman wandering The Terrace in central Wellington.

Gardiner reportedly told police that he had met the woman in a central Wellington bar before taking her back to his nearby home for consensual sex.

He handed over footage to back up the claims.

Gardiner, who went to school in Rotorua and attended the University of Waikato, had been touted as a potential future leader of the Maori Party.

He is a spokesman for the Maori Party's youth wing and has appeared on TVNZ7's Backbenchers programme.

But his political career is in doubt and he could be sacked after an employment investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs.

Internal Affairs guidelines state that employees have to inform them of any charges they face apart from minor driving offences.

A spokesman for Internal Affairs said: "Employment issues are confidential between the Department of Internal Affairs [the employer] and the employee.

"Decisions on whether to take any employment action and decisions on any consequent action are assessed on a case-by-case basis and remain confidential."

A spokesman for the American Council of Young Political Leaders, which funded the trip, told the Herald on Sunday it had no prior knowledge of the charges.

"It's not going to jeopardise future trips like this but it is unfortunate."

Gardiner, who returned from the US trip last Sunday, had not returned to his job in Parliament this week and did not return calls to the Herald on Sunday.