While the incidents were canvassed in court, Judge Brandt Shortland chose not to disclose the precise details to avoid retraumatising the victim.<\/p>\n
Six of the charges relate to occasions when he kissed her on the face, chin, and lips, along with inappropriate touching of her body.<\/p>\n
Togiatama also pleaded guilty to one representative charge of masturbating while in the vicinity of the girl.<\/p>\n
The victim addressed the court and described the trauma she has lived with, the deep scars continuing into adulthood, and how she became an expert in survival.<\/p>\n
Warren Togiatama was sentenced in Kaikohe District Court this week. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
\u201cThis mamae is a deep pain, it is a heavy cloak I carry every day. His actions were not accidents, they were choices, calculated and conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that, when she came forward with her complaint, she was \u201cgaslit into believing he had done nothing wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many of my family hold similar secrets. It seems inevitable we are all just waiting for the breaking point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a deep cry from the generations that demand this cycle ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crown lawyer Ina Stewart said the offending was opportunistic and not one-off.<\/p>\n
Togiatama had told pre-sentence report writers that he attributed his offending to being unable to get intimacy from his former wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an element of not taking full responsibility,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
Togiatama\u2019s lawyer, Panama Le\u2019Au\u2019Anae, said the offending occurred at a low point in his life, though he accepted that this was no excuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe acknowledges the serious impact this has had on the complainant and nothing that he can say will ever repair the damage.\u201d <\/p>\n
Togiatama had no criminal record, a 16-year teaching career at Kait\u0101ia and Wesley College, before he went on to work as an electrician, and was an ingrained member of the Polynesian church community.<\/p>\n
Warren Zuriel Togiatama was a teacher for 16 years. <\/p>\n
Several letters of support were submitted to the court, and Le\u2019Au\u2019Anae referred to one from the Reverend Atu Lagi, in which he said the behaviour had fallen below the standard expected of a person from a Christian background.<\/p>\n
Le\u2019Au\u2019Anae also stated that there were no other victims, as Togiatama had resisted the temptation to offend against other young girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he\u2019s done is no credit to himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Crown responded to the submission regarding Togiatama\u2019s character, saying it was a front.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do know this man has the ability to put on a face,\u201d Stewart told the judge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the front that he puts on, sir, to the community. So it\u2019s not surprising, detailing how he presents, because that\u2019s the person he is. He\u2019s able to do that while, meanwhile, offending against a child.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Shortland acknowledged Togiatama\u2019s unblemished record and respect in his church community, which created a challenge with regard to discounts on his sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can sum up in this way, you\u2019re not a bad man, but you\u2019ve done some bad things here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrevious good character is a matter that is currently being reviewed by Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, you have lived in the shadows, but now you\u2019re being held accountable for things you have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Shortland said Togiatama\u2019s actions would impact everybody, including his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t ignore the fact that, at the end of the day, this offending was serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Togiatama was given a 40% discount from a starting point of three years and eight months, and was sentenced to two years and three months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n
He will be added automatically to the child sex offender register.<\/p>\n
The National Party is currently campaigning to remove good character discounts for sexual offenders.<\/p>\n
Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But in March, just weeks before trial, Togiatama pleaded guilty to seven charges related to indecent acts, indecent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23503,1763,17704,2511,1968,2082,2740,42,22500,18839,43,90,6289,5161,17703,544,7574,1961,233626,40,38,41,39,96,1455,6656],"class_list":["post-460499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-acts","tag-article","tag-assault","tag-child","tag-discusses","tag-for","tag-former","tag-headlines","tag-indecent","tag-kaitia","tag-news","tag-on","tag-readers","tag-sentenced","tag-sexual","tag-some","tag-teacher","tag-this","tag-togiatama","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-upsetting","tag-warning","tag-warren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460499","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=460499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}