{"id":103965,"date":"2025-10-27T19:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T19:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103965\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T19:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T19:55:09","slug":"huntly-man-robert-manu-tukiri-jnr-jailed-for-sexual-assaults-on-four-young-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103965\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntly man Robert Manu Tukiri Jnr jailed for sexual assaults on four young victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe didn\u2019t care who he hurt to satisfy himself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I can never erase what he did<\/a>, I can now take back my voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m standing here not as a scared little girl … he no longer has power over me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman told Judge Philip Crayton in the Hamilton District Court that Tukiri \u201cno longer gets to silence me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI speak these words today so he knows exactly what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a predator, and I will never forgive him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A leading M\u0101ori advocate\u2019<\/p>\n

Tukiri, now 71, served a three-year term in a governance role on the Waikato Tainui Tribal Parliament and was a member of the organisation for 20 years.<\/p>\n

He had also advocated on behalf of Tainui, was on the iwi community panel which liaised with police, was the chair of Waikeri Marae in Ngaruaw\u0101hia, and was a former chairperson of the Huntly West School board of trustees.<\/p>\n

But he also had a darker side that\u2019s now been revealed in court.<\/p>\n

In August he was found guilty of 11 of 22 sexual assault charges.<\/p>\n

Now he has been jailed for six years.<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert Manu Tukiri Jnr, pictured in 2018. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ll make sure you don\u2019t get pregnant\u2019<\/p>\n

The court heard one of his victims was asleep when she woke to Tukiri touching her. On a different occasion a second victim also woke to find him violating her. <\/p>\n

He encouraged the third victim to drink so much that she vomited. Tukiri then put her to bed and began sexually violating her as she was in and out of consciousness and continued bouts of vomiting.<\/p>\n

He told her at one point he would \u201cmake sure she didn\u2019t get pregnant\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was also convicted of unlawful sexual connection and indecent assault of a fourth child victim.<\/p>\n

\u2018Keep the discounts modest\u2019<\/p>\n

Crown solicitor Rebecca Mann urged the judge to take an overall starting point of around 10 to 11 years when determining Tukiri\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n

However, when it came to discounts, she reminded the judge that he still denied his offending, so he should get nothing for remorse or insight, and a \u201cmodest\u201d discount for age, health issues, and previous good character.<\/p>\n

\" Robert Manu Tukiri Jnr has been jailed for six years for sexual offending against four young girls. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Tukiri can\u2019t be described as a man of good character,\u201d the judge replied. \u201cAt the time, he was not.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he had made a positive impact on the community over the years, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that identifies to me is that although we have seen and heard, and the jury has accepted, you are someone with a dark side, you are also someone who is committed to your community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018They were fleeting incidents\u2019<\/p>\n

Defence counsel Mark Fyers said the incidents were \u201cfleeting\u201d, single occasions, and suggested the judge come to an end jail term of three years and three months.<\/p>\n

He said Tukiri had spent a lot of his life \u201cmaking very positive contributions to the community and he has had extensive involvement in assisting people in his community being able to access services … and working on the governance board for Tainui\u201d. <\/p>\n

He urged the judge to hand down a sentence of around three years and three months\u2019 jail.<\/p>\n

\u2018Motivated by your own sexual gratification\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Crayton told Tukiri that he took away the victims\u2019 innocence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOffending against our children is offending against our most precious taonga.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt robs children of their childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the third victim, Judge Crayton said it was a \u201cdetermined effort\u201d to rape her. <\/p>\n

He said Tukiri\u2019s comment about not getting her pregnant was \u201ca very calculated remark\u201d, with the aim of \u201ctrying to get her to relax\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was plainly motivated by your own sexual gratification.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou used alcohol to get her intoxicated and disinhibited, reducing her ability to resist and be aware of what you were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also a threat after the act, telling her not to tell anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were thinking in a cold and calculated manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou knew that you had the control.\u201d<\/p>\n

He allowed 20% for health issues, which included advanced kidney disease, cardiac dysfunction, severe lung disease, sleep apnoea, diabetes, and arthritis.<\/p>\n

Judge Crayton took an overall starting point of nine years nine months before adjusting for totality, age, health, and previous good character.<\/p>\n

However, he didn\u2019t allow for any remorse, given that he maintained his innocence.<\/p>\n

He was convicted on charges of unlawful sexual connection with a child 12 or under, attempted rape, indecent assault on victims aged between 12 and over 16.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe didn\u2019t care who he hurt to satisfy himself. \u201cWhile I can never erase what he did, I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,13119,2082,3011,6655,14641,3038,5158,48955,111,43,139,69,28703,90,3046,17703,427,1961,75449,8844,1455,4741],"class_list":["post-103965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-assaults","tag-for","tag-four","tag-huntly","tag-jailed","tag-jnr","tag-man","tag-manu","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offending","tag-on","tag-robert","tag-sexual","tag-story","tag-this","tag-tukiri","tag-victims","tag-warning","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}