It was a case that shocked the nation. Videos taken and distributed by a pack of young West Auckland men, crudely self-styled as ‘Roast Busters’, depicted the men sexually violating drunk girls, many under aged. Politicians spoke out. Leaders were galvanised. 110,000 Kiwis demanded action against the men. It was a case that drew global attention.

The case was notorious for its shoddy start. Ten years on, its ending is no less abysmal.

Two men in the pack, now 27 but aged 17 and 16 at the time of the sex crimes, have been sentenced to home detention and granted permanent name suppression. Reports on last week’s sentencing were veiled. References to ‘Roast Busters’ were omitted. An unknowing public were ‘kept in the dark’. A case that ended not ‘with a bang but with a whimper’. Victims, petitioners, the public and principles of ‘open justice’ were, in effect, ‘shafted’.

The founder of sexual violence advocacy group Stop Demand, Denise Ritchie, says, “The outcome is galling on several counts. Firstly, yet again potential jail sentences were whittled down to paltry home detentions for both men, leaving the victims reportedly ‘outraged’”.

“Worse,” says Ritchie, “was the astonishing decision to grant the offenders permanent name suppression. Despite the predators voiding their own anonymity when boastfully splashing their faces across social media. Despite the men denying anonymity to their broken victims, publicly degrading and shaming them. Despite the judge noting ‘a lack of tangible evidence’ of ‘genuine’ remorse by the men, even now. Despite the men’s names being in the public domain for years. In dismissing the victims’ pleas the judge’s concern, that the men might face ‘extreme hardship’ if named, was another ‘kick-in-the-teeth’ to the young women who themselves have faced years of extreme hardship. It’s a blatant privileging of unremorseful predatory men over shattered victims of sex crimes. Frankly, it’s sickening.”

Ritchie says “This case is another example of a broken system. It has taken ten ... ten, long years for an outcome. Only two out of a potential 25 victims endured the harrowing process. Then aged 14 and now 24, they waited a decade for justice. Justice, denied!” 

Stop Demand says the case has been a shameful debacle from beginning to end. It is a case that sets another appallingly low precedent. The victims, their families and their advocates, now permanently muzzled, deserve better. New Zealand deserves better.

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