'It doesn't define me': Mama Hooch sex attack survivor lifts name suppression to speak out

News
Crime

Author: Katie Harris,
Publish Date: Sun, 28 May 2023, 9:43am

WARNING: This article contains reference to sexual assault

It was the Friday night spot.

Students on the cusp of real adulthood - loaded up on Scrumpy and Cruisers - lined up for hours to get in, spending the rest of the night maxing out debit cards at the bar and dancing until the lights turned on.

In late 2017 Sophie Brown, then 19, was one of those students.

Naively unaware of the club’s dark underbelly until she was drugged and sexually assaulted in a nearby bathroom by the manager, Danny Jaz.

More than five years on, Jaz and his brother, Roberto Jaz, were named this week as those convicted in April after a trial centred around the drugging and sexual assaults of more than 20 women at Christchurch bar Mama Hooch.

The men, aged 40 and 38, will be sentenced across two days in August for the offending, described in court as “predatory”.

Today, Brown is finally able to share her story after she successfully applied with the Herald to have her automatic name suppression lifted, the first survivor in the case to do so.

The night

Nearing the end of her first year at the University of Canterbury the then-teenager was shaking off the last semester by drinking with her cheerleading team-mates before heading into the city.

It was just like any other night out - the team enjoying one of their final days of freedom before exam stress kicked in.

All her mates would be at Mama Hooch, it was only a five-minute-or-so Uber from her flat in Ilam and one of the men behind the bar gave her free drinks, plus let her skip the line.

Although she’d heard some rumours of “seedy stuff” happening there, she was unaware of just how dangerous it could be, and as a 19-year-old she felt invincible.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me. You never think it’s going to happen to you.”

The man who offended against Sophie Brown pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault against her and was found guilty of stupefying her. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Waking up the next morning in her bed, covered in vomit - with no memory of how she got there - changed all that.

“I was trying to go, ‘Okay I need to start searching in my head and figure out when that happened’, and also ‘Why can’t I remember the second half of the night’ and everything like that and, when I was trying to remember, it just hit me and I just screamed. It was an instant reaction.

“My drink was spiked, and I was assaulted by the same guy.”

While she didn’t witness her drink being spiked, police would later confirm ketamine and an antihistamine which induces drowsiness - which she says she had never consumed before - was found in her body.

Brown can’t recall how she got there but she remembers being inside a bathroom at a building next door and being sexually assaulted.

With the support of two close friends, Brown made a formal complaint to police, recorded a statement and underwent a forensic examination but was told there was not enough evidence to charge her attacker.

Brown thought the police interview would be the end of it, until news articles containing similar allegations emerged.

“That sort of made me realise, ‘Oh s***, I’m not the only one’ and that kind of gave me hope that it wasn’t a waste of time that I’d gone through the events of going to the police and getting questioned.”

In 2018 she received a call from police, confirming the man would face two sexual violation charges and one stupefying charge for his attack against her.

“The theme for me through my healing journey and through this process is little bouts of validation that what happened to me was wrong and illegal and that something was going to be done about it and that ‘it’s not your fault’.”

Ramifications

After the attack, Brown compartmentalised. Tried to move on, pretending nothing had happened, even attending a concert the following weekend.

Although this worked publicly, when she was alone, she needed “constant distraction” to not think about it.

Brown also felt sharing the assault with people would be a burden for them and she found it difficult to lean on those around her.

“With this type of thing, it is very sensitive to bring up. You don’t know what other people have been through, you don’t know how it’s going to impact them.

“I isolated myself completely. I isolated myself from myself, just by pushing it back and just acting like it didn’t happen.”

The trauma of assault has spread across her life, relationships and friendships, impacting her in ways she’s still learning about.

Trusting people, she said, is impossible.

“Sometimes you don’t, you just want someone there or you just want the support but you don’t actually bring it up. You just want company, but then you also you don’t want to be a Debby Downer bringing the mood down and things like that, so it kind of just ends up that you’re either just living in chaos and not really addressing it, pretending to be happy, to you’re by yourself alone in your room and you never feel happy.”

Sophie Brown, 25, was just 19 when she was drugged and sexually assaulted at a Christchurch bar. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Over the years she’s seen herself oscillate between oversharing and being too open with others, to closing herself off and not sharing anything.

“I have a therapist now, she’s amazing, but it took me five years to get there.

“And that was five years where I was either a really fun person, and, like, life of the party and probably a bit too loud but having a good time, to then like just this super depressed shell of a human that struggles to be in social situations and actually have meaningful connections with people.”

Only now has she stopped blaming herself for the attack.

“There are so many emotions tied up in the events, you know - the shame, the embarrassment, the guilt, the responsibility - and it’s so unfair that people have those feelings because of something someone else has done.”

The trial

Prior to taking the stand, Brown learned her attacker had pleaded guilty to both sexual assault charges regarding her, and to 19 other sexual offending charges, meaning she was not questioned in court about the assault itself.

“The things that I was questioned on was the amount I’d been drinking, how much I usually drunk, you know, all those kinds of things.”

During the trial Judge Paul Mabey sat and listened to hours of lewd comments about what the men had done, wanted to do, dreamed of doing, and what they thought of specific women and their bodies.

They called each other “rapist” and joked about “roofies” - substances often used in drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

They shared photos of women - staff, bar patrons, young job seekers - and argued over who would have them.

Police found footage on phones too - 14 minutes of crude footage of a woman being raped and assaulted made up of 11 short snippets which the court heard were recorded without her knowledge.

On April 26, he was found guilty of stupefying Brown, with Judge Mabey finding Jaz guilty of rape and a raft of other sex and stupefying charges.

His brother was also found guilty of rape, sex charges, making an intimate recording and possession of objectionable material.

Danny Jaz (left) 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

Brown, who has waited years to say her piece, said she is doing so for both herself and other survivors out there.

“There’s so much shame and embarrassment and guilt wrapped up in having this happen to you. So, part of me sharing it is that I’m in control of how it’s told and I think it’s helping me understand that I don’t need to be ashamed of it and of the fact that this was something that happened to me.”

She also believes there is power in speaking out, even if it helps only one person.

“Take it at your own pace and just be very, very gentle on yourself.

“It’s just something that happened to you, it doesn’t define you.”

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