“I feel like I failed as a mother and couldn’t protect my son,” she said.
Her son now had attachment issues, had stopped attending school and the “goals and dreams” he once had were gone, along with his innocence, the mother said.
The woman had damaged the already fragile relationship her son and a sibling had with their father.
“They could have had a separate supportive family in you,” she said.
Instead, “those relationships will be forever tarnished by your selfish behaviour”.
“Now you are behind bars, no one gets the last laugh. There is no revenge, just devastation.”
The 25-year-old earlier pleaded guilty in the Tauranga District Court to seven charges of sexual connection with a young person under 16 relating to a series of incidents in 2024.
The first instance of sexual intercourse occurred in the woman’s car, when the boy was visiting his dad and his dad’s family in the South Island during the October school holidays.
The sexual offending was repeated on multiple occasions during the same school holiday visit.
Later, when the boy had returned to the Bay of Plenty, where he lived with his mum, the woman travelled to the region with a friend.
On November 1, the boy’s mum reported him missing.
The next day, the woman had intercourse with the boy in her car.
He was found by police with the woman in her car on November 6 and was taken back to his mother.
But later that day, he was again reported missing from his mum’s address.
The woman had managed to get accommodation in Tauranga and told the occupant the boy was her 16-year-old brother.
But the next morning, the occupant noticed the pair had slept in the same bed and the boy had “love bite” marks on his neck.
Police were told where the woman was and went to the address.
The woman claimed the boy wasn’t there but, with permission from the occupant, they searched the address and found him.
Police noted the marks on his neck and that he had all his possessions with him, and returned him to his mum.
The woman’s charges related to numerous instances of sexual intercourse that occurred between November 1 and 7, 2024, at various locations in the Tauranga area.
‘Extremely concerning’ comments made by woman in pre-sentence report
At sentencing on Tuesday, Judge Melinda Mason said the aggravating features of the case included breach of trust, inherent in a situation where the victim was the woman’s stepson, and she had been in a parental role towards him for a “number of years”.
The boy had also provided a victim impact statement, explaining he now has no contact with his father and there are so many complications he “doesn’t know how to deal with”.
The judge said the boy wanted the woman to “stay away from him”.
“And this, he says, includes your son [which the woman shares with the victim’s father], and of course, that’s disappointing as well, because obviously that’s another impact on a person that’s innocent from this offending,” the judge said.
The judge noted the woman had already been dealt with by the court over one incident with the boy.
He had initially only disclosed one instance of abuse, which led to the woman being charged with sexual connection with a young person, and indecent assault. She had immediately pleaded guilty and been sentenced to one year’s intensive supervision.
However, more offending was later disclosed, detailing further instances of sexual intercourse over the same time period, leading to further charges.
All the offending occurred over about a month, with the judge noting a degree of planning, because the boy had “run away from home” and there were addresses and locations the woman had set up for her offending.
There was an agreed starting point between the Crown and defence of three years’ imprisonment.
Defence lawyer Alexandra Dawick sought a discount for remorse, but this was opposed by the Crown.
Crown prosecutor Hannah Speight said while the woman had filed a remorse letter, the contents of a pre-sentence report were “extremely concerning”.
“They indicate that there is, in fact, no remorse,” Speight said.
Dawick said while she accepted there were “concerning comments” made in the report, more weight should be placed on the psychological report.
The judge noted issues raised in the report, including that the woman’s mother had suffered chronic depression, leading to a degree of neglect in the woman’s upbringing.
She’d had low engagement with school, because of minimal supervision and encouragement, and had dropped out early without qualifications.
She’d had an early introduction to sexual activity where she was subjected to the behaviour of older males, and had also had early exposure to alcohol and drugs.
The judge said she had some “normalised issues around age discrepancy with sexual relationships”, noting the victim’s father, with whom she remains in a relationship, was significantly older than her.
She had PTSD after sexual assaults, and mental health issues that included a history of self-harm, cannabis-use disorder and a borderline personality disorder.
The judge accepted that all of those issues warranted a 10% discount, with a 5% discount for youth.
She didn’t accept there should be a discount for remorse beyond what was captured by a guilty plea discount of 20%.
The woman was given a seven-month reduction because of time spent on electronically monitored bail.
She received an end sentence of 16 months’ imprisonment, which meant she was automatically registered on the Child Sex Offenders Register.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
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