{"id":581967,"date":"2026-08-27T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581967\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:12:10","slug":"former-league-international-tangiia-tongia-sentenced-for-violent-rape-in-christchurch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581967\/","title":{"rendered":"Former league international Tangiia Tongia sentenced for violent rape in Christchurch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tongia represented the Cook Islands<\/a> national team and played for the Papanui Tigers and the Canterbury Bulls during the late 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p>\n

The court heard that Tongia, 51, visited the victim, who was known to him, at her Christchurch house on July 1, 2023.<\/p>\n

There had been an earlier conflict between the pair and she told him to leave her property.<\/p>\n

The victim said Tongia became angry, describing his demeanour as \u201cflicking like a switch\u201d, Judge Tom Gilbert said.<\/p>\n

Tongia forced himself on her and the victim screamed and struggled to breathe as he held his hand over her mouth.<\/p>\n

Tongia then sexually violated the victim in what Judge Gilbert described as a \u201cfrantic rape\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was with force; she fought with everything she had.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victim confided in her former partner and police then became involved, the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou essentially admitted it; you were interviewed a few days later and admitted it,\u201d the judge told Tongia at the sentencing.<\/p>\n

However, despite the admission, Tongia went on to defend the charges at trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury\u2019s verdicts were all but inevitable,\u201d Judge Gilbert said.<\/p>\n

Upon reading the victim\u2019s impact statement, Judge Gilbert said he could not recall an adult victim who had been as badly affected as Tongia\u2019s victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery aspect of her life is blighted; she is still in a dark place. What you did has devastated her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TangiiaTangiia Tongia pictured playing for Canterbury in a Bartercard Cup match in 2000. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Judge Gilbert said a pre-sentence report noted Tongia maintained his innocence and was considering an appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a continued pig-headed denial in the face of overwhelming evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Will Taffs submitted that aggravating factors included the victim was vulnerable, in her home at the time of the rape, there was use of violence and significant harm was caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe harm continues; this is one of the oldest cases in Christchurch that has come to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a level of trust where he was invited into her private space and took advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Emma Nicol disputed that it was one of the oldest cases to come to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was entitled to take this matter to trial and it should not be an aggravating factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

She acknowledged the facts and that Tongia continued to deny the offending.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not put forward a spin on the evidence that came out in trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I do not accept on behalf of him is that the factor of premeditation was present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicol noted letters of support, touching on Tongia\u2019s working life, commitment to sport and the community, had been submitted to the court.<\/p>\n

\"JudgeJudge Tom Gilbert sentenced Tangiia Tongia to prison. Photo \/ pool, Kai Schwoerer <\/p>\n

In sentencing him, Judge Gilbert described Tongia as an exceptional rugby league player who represented the Cook Islands and Canterbury.<\/p>\n

However, he had five previous convictions, including for common assault and drink-driving, and was not entitled to credit for good character or remorse.<\/p>\n

The judge also did not give a discount for Tongia\u2019s guilty plea to a charge of assault against the victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was vulnerable, being alone in her own home. The offending involved a degree of violence; she fought and fought hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gave up, knowing her position was useless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tongia represented the Cook Islands national team and played for the Papanui Tigers and the Canterbury Bulls during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4487,181,8912,2082,2740,78,1019,14731,111,43,139,69,34458,6289,5161,544,427,286638,1961,286639,20424,1455],"class_list":["post-581967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christchurch","tag-details","tag-distressing","tag-for","tag-former","tag-in","tag-international","tag-league","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rape","tag-readers","tag-sentenced","tag-some","tag-story","tag-tangiia","tag-this","tag-tongia","tag-violent","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581967","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=581967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}