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Offender Databases Ihaia Moeau

Ihaia Mack Moeau

Alias

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Offences

Rape and assault of a Christchurch woman in her home after she had helped his family in 2003
A prior conviction for rape in 1987 plus 11 prior assault convictions

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

Mongrel Mob

Age

Born 1959

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to ten years in February 2004
Paroled April 2012

Background
NZ Herald story here
Last parole board decision documented here
The Christchurch Press, February 25th 2004
Theirs was an unlikely friendship. She was a bookish, middle-aged community worker and he was a heavily tattooed criminal with mohawked dreadlocks down his back. She was trying to help his family and invited him on outings to restaurants and the Court Theatre. The friendship continued even after he served a short jail term for assault but soured soon afterwards, ending in the violent attack that landed him in court and her in hospital. Yesterday Ihaia Mack Moeau, 44, who already has a rape conviction, was sentenced to 10 years jail for raping the community worker who was working with his sister.

Judge Stephen Erber warned Moeau that he faces preventive detention - an indefinite jail term reserved for the worst offenders - if he offends sexually again. Bryan Green, for Moeau, said his client was angry with himself for the attack, which followed the friendship shown to him by the victim. "She involved him in activities such as taking him to the Court Theatre and restaurants, when his lifestyle was somewhat different," he said. "She supported him and tried to provide a different sort of relationship, possibly taking him out of his realms of comfort." Prosecutor Pip Currie said Moeau showed no real remorse for the rape. The victim was in court for the sentencing.

The judge said the attack had involved significant violence which left the victim with a broken collar bone. Then, at a time when Moeau knew she was in pain, he continued to force her into sexual indignities. "Her life has been restricted physically because of the broken collar bone but emotionally the trauma has been greater because she had to give up her job for some time," he said. "You have a previous conviction for rape in 1987 and you have 11 previous convictions for assault. The probation report speaks of you having a low tendency to change and you're described as a recidivist offender." Balancing the serious aggravating factors against Moeau's guilty plea, which was entered on the day his trial had been due to start, the judge imposed a sentence of 10 years jail.

The Press, March 13th 2010
A Christchurch woman is supporting the parole bid of the man who raped her. In 2003, community worker Joanne Neilson, 60, was raped by Ihaia Mack Moeau in her Riccarton home. She suffered a broken collarbone in the attack. However, she now speaks to him every day, visits him in prison once a week, and actively supports his parole efforts. The seemingly mismatched pair were friends at the time of the 2003 attack. She was a shy, middle-class academic and he was a heavily tattooed criminal with gang connections. Not long after Moeau's release from prison for assault, Neilson said he entered her house - where he was staying at the time - punched her, flung her against a door, shattering her collarbone, and dragged her into the bedroom where he raped her.

Neilson said she told him: "You're only doing this to get back in prison. You need to stop this now. "That made him only angrier. I was in a lot of pain and escaped from him eventually and ran out on to Ilam Rd to look for help." Moeau, who already had a rape conviction, was sentenced to 10 years jail in 2004 and first appeared before the Parole Board in 2006. He has been denied parole ever since and is due to reappear in August. Neilson said she was extremely shaken by the attack, often staying home and avoiding seeing men. However, she now supports Moeau's release. In May 2006, she began meeting Moeau as part of restorative justice efforts and had been in contact since.

Neilson said even after she was raped, she "wished to maintain contact and repair the damages". "If I was stuck with hatred and fear, it would have been no way to live. "And I was very lucky my offender was prepared to accept responsibility for what he did." In a letter to the Parole Board, her psychologist wrote: "The turning point came after the restorative justice meeting with Ihaia at the prison." The first meeting with Moeau was "quite difficult". "I was very quiet. I was shaking a lot, but Ihaia said he wanted to say how sorry he was and give back what he had taken from me. And it was quite self- serving actually. If you think I'm charitable, I'm not." Neilson said her socialist upbringing made her a major critic of the prison system.

"I thought the prison sentence was appalling. I wouldn't have given him 10 years. He should have got five years, plenty of rehab programmes and support when he was released," she said. She has not forgiven Moeau, but said her life has been made easier by meeting him. "I feel we've come together and made our lives more normal, but forgiveness isn't the right word. But I think prison does nothing for him." They may have a "friendship', but Neilson does not know what will happen when Moeau leaves prison. "I think our friendship may continue but whether that turns into a romantic relationship is unknown. I don't actually know what will happen." Rape Prevention Education director Dr Kim McGregor said the restorative justice process "can help the offender to acknowledge the harm they have done and seek treatment." However, she stressed that restorative justice would not apply in all cases and must be victim-led.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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