Edwards was found guilty via a majority verdict in Auckland District Court earlier this year following a trial on one count of sexual violation and six counts of committing an indecent act on a young person.
He faced up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the sexual violation charge.
Prosecutors accused Edwards of sexually violating the first child some years ago while intoxicated, after convincing her to get under a blanket with him.
The second victim told jurors she was targeted multiple times in the years that followed. He repeatedly groped her – kissing her on one occasion and unsuccessfully asking for sex on another, she said.
“She broke down and cried as she left,” the judge said of the final incident, which the victim recounted at trial.
Razz David Rawiri Edwards, 74, was sentenced in the Manukau District Court. Photo / Dean Purcell
The allegations eventually surfaced through a school counsellor, with the first victim explaining she didn’t come forward earlier because she was worried about the trouble it would cause with his supporters. She wasn’t wrong, the judge noted.
Both victims, now adults, opted not to attend the difficult sentencing – sending their mother to sit in the courtroom instead as their proxy. But both submitted emotional victim impact statements that were read aloud by Crown prosecutor Emma Barnes.
Both said they still suffer trauma as a result of what Edwards did to them.
The first accuser described how she still suffers severe insomnia, often finding herself guarded and unable to sleep until others in the house wake up in the morning. She also fears being alone with men, she said, explaining that she sometimes needs someone to escort her while talking to her male supervisor at work.
“It feels so unprofessional,” she explained.
People who she once considered supporters in her life instead called her a liar when she came forward, she said.
“I want everyone to know what a monster he is, so it can’t be swept under the rug or denied any longer,” she said.
The second victim expressed similar sentiments about suffering ongoing nightmares and feeling alienated by Edwards’ supporters during the stressful trial.
“I am amazed at how many people have turned their backs,” she said, adding that she was angry she had to give evidence at trial instead of the defendant owning up to what he did.
It was important to her, too, that the defendant’s name was made public, she said.
“He’s been trying to hide what he did for so long,” she explained, adding that she and the other victim wanted “to protect other girls in the community”.
Although he denied the charge at trial, Edwards came to court for sentencing this week with a short letter of apology to the victims. The letter was so short it took the judge only seconds to read it to herself.
Defence lawyer Luka Grbavac described his client as someone who had worked hard all his life but also suffered from alcoholism. The defendant’s life began “spiralling” after his wife’s death prompted his daily alcohol consumption to go “through the roof” – to the point that he was drinking about a box of beer a day at the time of offending, the lawyer said.
“It was all day, every day,” Grbavac said, explaining that Edwards chose not to give evidence at his trial because he simply didn’t remember any of the incidents described by the victims.
But Edwards accepts the jury’s verdict, the defence lawyer emphasised.
If Edwards is actually remorseful, the judge responded, he needs to have a frank conversation with his supporters and admit guilt to them so they stop re-traumatising the victims.
The Crown disagreed that all of the incidents could be attributed to alcohol. On one occasion, he groped the second victim as she was making French toast for breakfast, so it’s unlikely he would have been intoxicated then, Barnes suggested.
Regardless, Judge Sharp said, alcohol is not a credible excuse for the defendant’s interest in children. It’s more likely, she said, “you had such predilictions in the first place” and alcohol loosened his inhibitions, she said.
“You took advantage of [them] in a despicable manner, and you cannot now fall back on your addiction to excuse or explain it,” she said.
The judge set a starting point sentence of four-and-a-half years for the sexual violation conviction then uplifted it by eight months to account for the indecent acts.
She allowed a 5% reduction for his self-reported abstinence from alcohol since his arrest and 10% for his age and poor physical health, which she acknowledged would make prison more difficult for him than the average offender.
The court was told Edwards, who used a walker as he shuffled to the dock at the start of the hearing, suffered lingering effects from laryngeal cancer and has recently been treated in a hospital ICU for septic shock.
She declined his requested discount for remorse, resulting in an end sentence of four years and three months’ imprisonment.
“They have lost so much as a result of your behaviour,” the judge said, describing his offending as “calculated” and needing of deterrence.
Edwards blew a kiss at his supporters as they yelled out their love for him at the end of the hearing.
He will also have to register as a sex offender, the judge ordered.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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