Warning: This story contains distressing content relating to sexual violence.

A sex worker had saved enough money to attend university and was about to begin her first semester when she was savagely strangled by a man who hired her.

Now, she is in therapy rather than school and has spent her savings on “pills” to cope with the trauma.

“I thought you were going to kill me,” the 43-year-old woman told her attacker, Jawad Mensouri of Taranaki, on Tuesday.

 “I had to fight you for my breath, my life.”

Mensouri, 25, was in New Plymouth District Court for sentencing on a charge of strangulation when the woman delivered her impassioned victim impact statement, and while reading the statement, she turned to address him directly.

She said she had always wanted to go to university, and now that her children were older and she had saved enough money to fund her studies, she had gone ahead and enrolled herself.

But then she was hired by Mensouri.

In her 15 years of escort work across the Asia-Pacific region, he was the most “calculated” client she had ever met.

“I was banged up and bruised up, and I had these panic attacks for about six weeks after. I don’t know if you’ve ever had one yourself, but it feels like your heart is going to jump out of your f****** chest,” she told him, as her voice grew louder and she fought back tears.

“I didn’t know what they were... [with] what money I had saved, I went and got pills or anything I f****** could just to shove down my throat, just to shake it off.

“Then I had to hide myself from my kids because I didn’t want them to see their mother all f***** up.”

Mensouri was sentenced in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

She said no one had ever made her fear for her life like Mensouri had.

The woman never made it to university.

“I’m in psychotherapy for the next 12 months to get the anger out of my heart.

“I want to get rid of the storm in my mind when I think of you.”

Reading her statement to Mensouri was an important move to help her get her “power back”, she told him.

Once finished, she walked out of the courtroom, leaving him in the dock to be dealt with by Judge Tony Greig.

Mensouri hired the woman, whom he knew through her work as a self-employed sex worker, in October last year, paying her $400 for an hour.

As they engaged in sexual intercourse, Mensouri asked if he could choke her, which she permitted, believing he would still allow her to breathe.

However, he choked her to the point of momentary unconsciousness.

When she came to, she told Mensouri the session was over and he was never to contact her again.

But the following week, he arranged to meet her at a New Plymouth motel.

She was unaware it was him she would be meeting, and when she opened the motel door and saw it was Mensouri, she asked him why he had returned.

Believing he may have learned his lesson, she let him in the room.

But while the pair were having intercourse, he grabbed her neck and strangled her again.

The woman was unable to breathe until Mensouri released her of his own accord.

She confronted him, saying they had not discussed what was to take place or the use of a “safe word”.

They agreed to use “peaches” as the safe word and continued.

Mensouri immediately grabbed the woman by her throat and restricted her breathing.

After around 10 to 12 seconds, he released his grip momentarily and then choked her again.

When he tried to strangle the woman a fourth time, she protected her throat and attempted to escape him.

A struggle ensued, and Mensouri pinned her down and continued to have sex with her.

At some stage, Mensouri, without the woman’s consent, removed his condom.

The woman suffered petechial spots on her neck, large bruises on her upper chest and scattered bruising across her arms.

In court, Judge Greig said Mensouri was currently serving a prison term of three years and 10 months for a variety of offences, including extreme violence he committed prior to the strangulation incident.

He was on bail for the earlier offending when he choked the woman.

Mensouri smiled when the judge said today he would be increasing his jail time.

A pre-sentence report indicated he had a medium risk of reoffending and a high risk of harm to others, while a cultural report canvassing his background detailed his dysfunctional childhood, which included neglect, abuse and being introduced to drugs at a young age.

Mensouri has grappled with mental illness, substance abuse and gambling issues in his adult years.

He was “not in a good head-space” when he attacked the sex worker and was scheduled to enter a rehabilitation programme the day he was arrested for it.

Judge Greig said Mensouri was in the habit of hiring sex workers and that he denied the need for violence in order to get sexual gratification.

But the judge rejected that.

He said it was a “deliberate, premeditated, calculated act of cruelty” that was “purely for your own sexual gratification”.

The woman was vulnerable and she had “absolutely not” consented to what had happened, the judge said.

Following a starting point of three years’ imprisonment with an uplift of three months for offending while on bail, credit was applied for Mensouri’s guilty plea, background factors and totality.

His end sentence was 15 months in jail, cumulative to his current sentence.

Judge Greig said the sentence would have been “much, much” longer had he not already been in prison.

Mensouri rubbed his hands together and gave the judge a thumbs up before he smiled at his supporters as he was taken away by prison guards.

SEXUAL HARM

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:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email [email protected]
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.