At 15 Erin Leighton was given drugs and indecently touched by serial fraudster Paul Bennett and a woman who can’t be named. Sixteen years on they have now been convicted and sentenced for their crimes. Katie Harris speaks to Leighton about her battle to hold the pair to account.

Erin Leighton has found calm in the paddocks and farm animals of her new life as an apprentice jockey in Matamata.

“I don’t know if I would have made it out the other side without the horses.

“That’s where I feel the least anxious.”

She leads a quiet life now; a gentle nature is borne out as she cuddles her Chatham Island pig dog, Matey, and tends to her horses.

But for 16 years, Leighton battled an inner darkness, waiting for justice against the two people who befriended and then abused her.

A month before the interview, in June this year, she stepped into a witness box hoping to put an end to the ordeal that cost her youth, her friends and her motocross career.

“You get pushed around in the system and it’s hard being a victim. And I think a little bit of taking my power back was being able to stand up in front of them, and kind of put on this front that I’m not scared of them.”

Erin Leighton with her dog Matey. Photo / Michael Craig

• New charges against former fugitive Paul Bennett
• Fraudster Paul James Bennett jailed for over three years after admitting scams

Erin Leighton says horses have helped with her healing. Photo / Michael Craig

Back in 2008, Leighton counted days with rides and the rev of motocross bikes, dreaming of one day taking out the world champs.

Through managing competitive riders, Paul Bennett and a woman who can’t be named for legal reasons had latched on to the sport’s community too.

A community then unaware the pair were not what they claimed to be.

But as their facade of legitimacy began to crumble, and they were accused of ripping off members of the sport, news of an even darker side of their offending was revealed.

“I knew it was wrong and disgusting. I didn’t know if anyone would ever believe me, I was really scared to tell anyone, but I was especially scared for my parents to find out.”

Leighton, it emerged, had been preyed on by the pair, fed drugs falsely described as pain medication before they committed indecent acts on her.

At the time Bennett had been managing Leighton’s motocross racing boyfriend, and her parents allowed her to spend time with them as they had trusted the duo.

But later that year, after she had gone to police, they fled before authorities had the chance to confront the abusers about what was done to her.

 “It was scary, the whole time not knowing where they were was frightening.

“I’ve tried to get on with my life as much as I can but it’s always there. There’s always something that will remind you. It’s always kind of bubbling under the surface and when something else goes wrong in your life it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

Seven years on, Bennett and the woman were arrested as they sailed into Sydney Harbour after crossing the Tasman Sea from Northland on a crippled yacht.

“I thought [then] I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, I did not think I would still be going as a 30-year-old.”

Bennett, now in his 60s, is one of New Zealand’s most wanted former fugitives and with several aliases including Dennis Kite, David Kite and James Lochead, had spent years on the run from police after being accused of masterminding a string of cons.

It wasn’t until this year that Bennett and the woman went on trial for their offending against her.

The lengthy wait for a trial was due to their time on the run, other charges being dealt with in the court and other issues.

Over five days in the Auckland District Court a jury heard how Bennett had given Leighton a “pain” drug she later learnt was MDMA, how the woman bathed nude with her and how the couple had claimed they had a “special connection” with the then teen.

In police footage of a teenage Leighton, she described how the duo lit coloured candles and started suggesting “weird things” to her, including “threesomes” and saying they had a special connection with her.

Paul James Bennett, who had several aliases including Dennis Kite, David Kite and James Lochead, was arrested as he sailed into Sydney Harbour in 2015.

Other allegations included claims Bennett told her the drug would completely cure her shoulder and promises it would help her father, who had been suffering a lot of pain.

Her father testified in her support and defended Leighton when Bennett’s defence lawyer Simon Shamy asked if it was fair to say she had been vague when describing details of anything sexual that may have happened with the pair to him.

“You imagine being 15 and trying to explain that [to your father], I mean these are people that she trusted,” he responded.

Throughout the trial Leighton was accused of making things up to get attention, “not being the victim” she had made herself out to be and asked whether she had fabricated the claims to get back with her ex.

Leighton refuted this, asking why she would hang on to it for 15 years given the pain it had caused her.

“For the fact I wanted to get back with my ex-boyfriend? It’s just crazy the things they pull out on you in court.”

Erin Leighton delivering her victim impact statement. Photo / Michael Craig

She remained steadfast in her allegations against the pair.

“I kind of schooled myself into separating me as an adult, from me as a child and victim. I had in my mind gone in there thinking I’m here to bat for a kid that got abused.”

Featuring prominently throughout the court case was off-the-record footage obtained by the defence from a TVNZ interview several years prior.

Lawyers for both defendants used it against her, highlighting discrepancies between comments the victim made during a 2008 police evidence video, for example not mentioning a massage that she told police had occurred, and the 2015 raw footage from the TVNZ interview.

Leighton said the broadcaster made promises to her which it did not keep, something she didn’t expect from a company like TVNZ.

”It was difficult because that footage should have never made it in the courtroom in the first place. That was a major letdown by TV New Zealand.

”The major difference was I was an adult when TVNZ interviewed me, and I was a child in that EVI [police video interview]. So my views towards the defendants and what they did naturally changed as I became older and more mature and realised what they [had] really done to me.”

A TVNZ spokeswoman said the broadcaster had strongly opposed the release of the footage with “hundreds of legal hours internally” dedicated to it and external lawyers hired at “substantial cost”.

“We take these matters seriously and fight them robustly. We take our ethical responsibilities and duty of care to our interviewees seriously. Where we have given certain undertakings to interviewees, we seek to honour those commitments.

“TVNZ in this instance has been compelled by the courts to provide specific material for the purposes of a fair trial.”

Paul Bennett in court. Photo / Michael Craig

Just after 6pm on Friday, June 23, and following several hours of deliberations, the jury convicted Bennett on all charges: three of committing an indecent act on a young person and three charges of supplying a Class B controlled drug.

The woman was convicted of two indecent act charges and one charge of supplying a Class B drug, and was found not guilty on two other charges.

On Friday Bennett was sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment and the woman 16 months, however, Auckland District Court Judge Brooke Gibson said earlier in the hearing their sentence would be cut down by the time they had already spent in custody their sentences.

The woman was also granted name suppression.

Judge Gibson described their offending as “completely premeditated”, telling the court they manipulated the victim and her family to gain access to her.

In Her victim impact statement, Leighton said she had served a 15-and-a-half-year sentence for what they did to her and she was still paying the cost.

She told the court she could not imagine “anything more disgusting” than grooming a child as Bennett and the woman did to her.

In her view, the pair deserved a harsher punishment, and she felt even at the hearing she was being censored as large parts of her victim impact statement were redacted.

“To not be able to acknowledge [Mike Jacombs] and his efforts on the case was really terrible.”

Jacomb, who was defrauded by Bennett, has supported Leighton for the last several years and even put up the $50,000 reward for information leading to their arrest.

He said since the pair had been convicted a twinkle has returned to Leighton’s eyes.

Jacomb, who is also leader of the New Nation Party, told the Herald he felt greatly for Leighton and said she had suffered “more than you and I know”.

“She’d ring me up sometimes late at night. Sometimes she’d be crying, she hasn’t moved on. She’s brave, she’s put on a very big front but it’s ruined her life. It’s taken a toll, immense, immense toll and I don’t use that word lightly.”

Erin Leighton spends most of her time with her animals. Photo / Michael Craig

Through their crimes Leighton lost more than her innocence, she also lost the sport she loved.

“It might have been nationals down Hawke’s Bay and I remember some girls around my age walking behind me saying really loudly, ‘that’s the girl that has sex with old people’.”

Before speaking further Leighton pauses, letting tears through as she recounts overshooting a jump in the race and breaking her ankle.

“I remember hitting the ground and thinking my mind is not here.

“You start getting nervous riding a powerful motorbike knowing you need absolute concentration. They go really fast and things go wrong really quickly and if you know your mind’s lacking it becomes quite nerve-racking to be in a race.”

Although she no longer competes on a powerful bike, she’s returned to her childhood pastime of horse riding, and said being around horses helped her heal after the offending.

Socially things were tough, and at times she felt more comfortable with strangers than people who were overly nice to her.

“When I was younger I would think, what’s the hidden agenda here? So I’d let people get to know me to a point then I’d just shut people out and cut them off.”

Sometimes she still feels like this now.

There were patches in her life where she questioned whether going to the police was the right decision, whether she should have “shut up” and tried to pretend it never happened.

“But there was always the motivator of seeing it through because I didn’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

“Just hang on”, is what she’d say to her younger self now.

Now out the other side, she believes it was worth it.

“Hopefully they’ll never be able to touch anyone ever again.”

Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.

SEXUAL HARM

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