Mama Hooch: Hunting the hunters- police open up about investigation into rapist Christchurch brothers

News
Crime

Author: Anna Leask,
Publish Date: Mon, 29 May 2023, 2:05pm

WARNING: Distressing content

They treated them like celebrities at Mama Hooch - letting them skip the queue, offering free drinks and drugs and access to the “VIP area” of the bar.

They charmed them. They made them feel special, chosen, and important.

And then, when their guards were down and they were at their most vulnerable, predators Danny and Roberto pounced, taking what they wanted from the young women, and when they wanted it.

On the dancefloor, in toilet cubicles, down the street at their family restaurant Venuti.

They drugged, raped, violated and assaulted young women.

Danny Jaz (L) and Roberto Jaz have been convicted of rape and a raft of other charges relating to the drugging and sexual assault of women at their family bar and restaurant Mama Hooch and Venuti in Christchurch. Photo / Pool

“In short, they acted together to increase the party atmosphere in the bar, giving priority to attractive young women, plying them with alcohol, administering illicit drugs… targeting waitresses… encouraging each other in their endeavours,” Crown Prosecutor Andrew McRae told the court during the trial.

And the deviant brothers - fixated with sex and indifferent to consent - got away with it for years.

Until two teenage girls, one who’d turned 18 just days earlier, went to the police about their experience at Mama Hooch and Venuti.

They’d been drugged with an unknown white substance and physically and sexually assaulted by Roberto Jaz.

Their complaint sparked Operation Sinatra - the police investigation that would bring down the rapist siblings.

Detective Inspector Scott Anderson sat down with the Herald to discuss the operation after Danny and Roberto Jaz were convicted of 69 charges including rape, sexual violation, indecent assault, stupefying, disabling, making intimate recordings of women without their knowledge or consent and supplying illicit drugs.

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“What 18-year-old wouldn’t do that?” he said of the victims who’d accepted the free drinks at Mama Hooch.

“These guys knew they had a market and they just made them vulnerable - they treated them like rock stars.

“It’s scary.”

Anderson said there was only one word to describe the Jaz brothers.

“Predators. When you look at how the whole thing ran at Mama Hooch - it was total predatory behaviour.

“They were living out some kind of fantasy… they thought they could do whatever they liked with whoever fell in front of them.

“I really think their Whatsapp [and other group chats] was an unfiltered insight into how they lived their lives - an unfiltered look into their lives.

“Some people will say it’s ‘boys being boys’ or ‘locker room chat’ but it’s actually what happened and it ended with sexual offending.

“It was a real insight into how they mistreated and disrespected women.”

Anderson said while Op Sinatra was “kicked off” by the complaint from the two 18-year-olds in July 2017, Mama Hooch and Danny Jaz had already come across the police radar in the past.

But nothing would red flag the insidious offending that was going on behind the doors of the Colombo St bar.

When the women came forward police searched their database and found 38 occurrences linked to Mama Hooch.

Most were complaints of drink spiking from people who’d been at the bar - another was a woman who “assaulted” a police officer outside.

She’d been removed from the bar after she became suddenly unwell - assumedly drugged.

As the bouncer kicked her out she fell, hit her head and knocked herself out.

She came to and was vomiting, panicking.

She flagged down a passing police patrol car and when the officer tried to intervene she lashed out.

“It was just written off as someone who was just drunk and assaulted a cop,” said Anderson.

“No charges were laid against her and she didn’t want to take it any further.”

“It was noted in the incident report that it was ‘outside Mama Hooch’ - it was just considered an incident outside a pub.”

Another woman was found unconscious on the footpath on Peterborough St and when first responders arrived a comment was made that her drink “might have been spiked at Mama Hooch”.

“That was really the first time anyone had mentioned drink spiking,” said Anderson.

“Uniform staff did some work on that but that’s as far as it went as no more complainants came out of it.

“The next one was Sophie Brown who complained about being taken from Mama Hooch next door to an empty building where Danny Jaz sexually violated her.

“That got investigated and we did a lot of work around that, but the decision was made not to prosecute Danny on the evidence of that incident alone.

“And then, Katherine and Penny turned up.”

Rapist brothers Danny (centre) and Roberto (right) Jaz at the bar Mama Hooch where they drink spiked and sexually assaulted women. Photo / Facebook

The women (whose names have been anonymised to protect their identities) reported to police that Roberto Jaz had lured them to Venuti from Mama Hooch where he drugged and assaulted them.

It started when Roberto suggested to Katherine that they “go down the road” for drinks.

She asked if she could bring her friend Penny and Roberto said no.

Katherine invited Penny anyway and she begrudgingly joined - noting it was “weird” Roberto wanted to take them to Venuti because he was “old”.

At Venuti, Roberto offered the girls lines of what he said was MDMA and they agreed to take them.

As soon as they snorted the white powder they both knew it was not MDMA - it was far stronger and left them in “agony” and unable to see or hear properly. Or move. Or resist Roberto’s sexual attacks.

Anderson said after this complaint police were able to go back and link the other incidents and pull them together as an investigation - Operation Sinatra.

“It’s not as if we knew all this stuff and didn’t do anything about it,” he promised.

“The Solicitor General has prosecution guidelines we have to abide by and apply against complaints - on its own, a single complaint did not stack up to the guidelines.

“There’s always been an argument for ‘we should have done it earlier’... but once Katherine and Penny came forward, that really kicked it off.”

Anderson put out a press release soon after the women’s statements were taken - naming Mama Hooch and publishing concerns about drink spiking.

“And then the avalanche took off,” he said.

“But it was a slow burn, the complaints came in dribs and drabs.”

Danny Jaz behind the bar at Mama Hooch with former Prime Minister Sir John Key and staff. Photo / Facebook

In total 32 victims and complainants gave evidence of having their drinks spiked or being stupefied or disabled and sexually assaulted by Danny or Roberto Jaz and two other men who currently have name suppression.

There were three others whose complaints were dropped and “half a dozen more” that did not make it to the trial part of the process, Anderson told the Herald.

Operation Sinatra quickly became one of the biggest investigations of its kind in New Zealand.

“The biggest challenge was the passing of time between the offending and the reporting of it,” Anderson said.

“Any CCTV was pretty much gone and because of how quickly drugs pass through the system that was a challenge.

“For the victims, the not knowing was the hardest part - not knowing what had actually happened to them.

“And we had to be really, really careful we didn’t influence their recollection of what happened. We had to get their recollections before giving them any information we’d found.

“For one woman we’d found video of what happened to her on Roberto Jaz’s phone - but she had no memory of it at all.

“We had to make the decision not to show her that because as soon as we tell her or show her, it may contaminate her memory.

“You just have to be so careful about that sort of thing.”

Anderson said having a trial five years after the offence also put pressure on the victims and complainants.

“Many of these women have moved on - they were all young, some uni students at the time and now some are mums, some have jobs, some are overseas and they just want to get on with their lives,” he said.

Venuti is also now closed. Photo / George Heard

Anderson sat in court every day and watched the victims give evidence about being sexually assaulted - deeply personal accounts of their bodies being violated and them not having any control or capacity to stop the criminal Jaz brothers.

They were questioned by defence lawyers - accused of lying, colluding, not remembering properly, being drunk, and being willing participants in “consensual” sex acts with men they were “attracted” to.

“I think they were incredibly brave,” said Anderson.

“You can only imagine how hard it would be to come to police and talk about what’s happened and then think you’re going to have to get up in front of a jury and tell them, and end up still having to talk about it in a room full of people you don’t know.”

The Jaz brothers were set to stand trial before a jury but days before the start date, changed their minds and elected trial by judge alone.

“I’d like to think we prepared them as much as possible, but you never know the extent of what they’re going to be asked by the defence in court,” said Anderson.

“I think the victims conducted themselves remarkably - obviously a number of them were really upset by some of the questions they were asked and that’s understandable.

“But they still conducted themselves remarkably and they were very, very brave in what they did. It must be such a relief to come and get it out of the way.”

The former bar Mama Hooch. Photo / Google Maps

During the trial not one family member or friend attended court to support the Jaz brothers.

There was no sign of their parents, no sign of Danny’s partner who is the mother of his children.

None of their “mates” from the bar - or the vile group chats.

No one came. At all.

It’s unclear who, if anyone will support them at sentencing - which will run across two days in late August to accommodate all the victims who want to read impact statements to the court.

“We’re talking about offending that carries a 20-year maximum term of imprisonment, it’s very serious,” said Anderson.

“They were just taking advantage of vulnerable people, it’s got to be premeditated because it happened more than once.

“If behaviour happens more than once or twice it’s got to be planned.”

During the trial the Jaz brothers looked, for the most part, nonplussed.

As he pleaded guilty to 21 charges in the first week Danny Jaz shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Afterwards, he and Roberto and their co-accused joked with security staff about where they would go for lunch.

At some evidence they smirked, at other parts they scoffed.

When their lewd descriptions of women and sexual desires and conquests in their group chats were read aloud in court - they all but giggled at times.

At no point did they look upset nor were they disturbed by any of the witness evidence including the video of a woman being raped.

Their behaviour did not go unnoticed by anyone in the courtroom.

“At times we thought they thought it was all a big joke,” said Anderson.

“Danny pleaded guilty to 20-plus charges, knowing he’s going to do prison time and he wasn’t fazed… but is that who these guys are - easy come, easy go? I don’t know.”

Anderson had a strong message to anyone who thought what the Jaz brothers had done was okay - or even close to it.

“Sexual offending won’t be tolerated,” he said

“Everyone should be safe.”

SEXUAL HARM - DO YOU NEED HELP?

Where to get help:

If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7: