The woman's team was part of the response to Cyclone Gabrielle, based on the East Coast of the North Island near Wairoa. Photo: RNZ/ Kate Green
WARNING: This story includes details of sexual harm and may be distressing.
When a woman volunteered with an emergency response team, aiding Cyclone Gabrielle recovery efforts, she thought, "What better people to be with?"
But on the last day of deployment, after a week of what she said were inappropriate comments and increasing sexual overtones, team leader Gerrard Knight indecently assaulted her.
Knight had a long history of working and volunteering with Fire and Emergency NZ and Hato Hone St John in the Bay of Plenty, which included "glowing references" for his community contribution.
But his actions during the Cyclone Gabrielle response ended the 56-year-old's career with both organisations, who have since confirmed he is no longer a member of either and does not work for them.
According to a High Court judgment, Knight was the leader of a response team that stopped near Wairoa for a barbecue in February 2023.
Photos were taken and, in one of them, Knight grabbed the woman's buttocks with his hand.
He then said he was "going for a piss" before suggesting to the woman, "Why don't you hold it for me?"
Later that day, Knight, the woman and another team member were clearing a bedroom in their hostel when Knight told the other person to leave to look for clean linen.
While he was gone, Knight told the woman to come into his room and see the view. When she went to leave, Knight was fumbling in his bag. She waited to get past but he shut the door and the woman realised he had unbuttoned his trousers to expose himself.
He pressed himself against her, tried to kiss her and asked her to touch him. He undid her belt and tried to unbutton her trousers.
The assault stopped when the other team member radioed the pair, asking where they were.
The woman quickly left the room and went outside. She later confided in her teammate, who rang the co-ordinating organisation to report the incident.
The woman told NZME that reporting the incident in the middle of the recovery was stressful as there was hardly any way of getting hold of the outside world - just a single Starlink in an area used by the whole team.
Tauranga District Court. Photo: SunLive
'I thought they were all people I could trust'
The woman, who has statutory name suppression, said she had had no concerns about joining the response team.
"You feel like you can trust people in emergency services, right?
"I was not ever at any point nervous about going away on the deployment with a bunch of men. I thought they were all people I could trust ... Everyone's here for the same purpose, we're all here to help people.
"What better people to be with?"
After the incident, she took time off, went to counselling and was just starting to feel better about things when she had to give evidence at a judge-alone trial held at the Tauranga District Court.
Knight denied, and continues to deny, that the events happened.
The woman said she found being cross-examined and being told she had made things up "really quite traumatic".
She was relieved when the judge found Knight guilty and she had been able to open up to her team about what happened that day.
While she did not think Knight's actions reflected on the team, nor the various emergency services organisations involved, there were things she believed could have been handled differently.
There had been a lot of sexual talk between the male teammates, which she had not wanted to make a big deal about at the time.
"It was totally inappropriate banter ... They'd all worked together for a couple of years and I thought, you know, this is probably how they talk when no one else is around.."
It was only after "everything's happened and everyone's had a chance to reflect on it, that actually, as a matter of professionalism, it probably wasn't okay".
Discharge without conviction declined
Knight asked for a discharge without conviction and permanent name suppression but Judge Paul Geoghegan denied those applications.
His decision was upheld by Justice Matthew Muir on appeal to the High Court.
At sentencing, Judge Geoghegan considered the impact of the offending on the woman.
"I felt so vulnerable and terrified being put in this position (by someone in power and while lacking nearly all forms of communication)," her victim impact statement read.
"I am scared to see him again and it makes my heart race," she said.
In the week after the incident, she felt "shattered, upset, unable to eat, struggling to get out of bed, sleep-deprived and in urgent need to speak to someone as I was feeling uncontrollably emotional".
The judge concluded the offending took a "very significant toll" on her.
He said the offending was "at a serious level", noting that Knight was in a position of authority and took advantage of the woman in "circumstances where she was vulnerable".
However, he balanced that against Knight's "completely clear record", his "glowing references" and his community contribution.
The judge said the consequences of a conviction were clear - Knight lost his job and it would be "exceedingly difficult" for him to get a similar job again because of the "nature of the offence".
However, Judge Geoghegan did not think these consequences were out of proportion and also declined the application for permanent name suppression.
On appeal, Knight's lawyer Phil Mitchell said the judge made an error in his assessment of the gravity of the offending and failed to take fully into account evidence about Knight's previous good character.
He said the first incident was best classified as "childish behaviour" and the second was still at the lower end of seriousness in terms of indecent assaults.
Mitchell also said the judge should have paid more attention to Knight's offer of $10,000 emotional harm reparation into account.
'Highly transactional' offer of emotional harm payment
Justice Muir did not think Judge Geoghegan erred in his assessment of the seriousness of the offending.
Both incidents had the "seriously aggravating feature" that they happened when Knight was in a position of authority over the woman.
He noted the "particularly troubling" circumstances of the bedroom assault, which showed elements of premeditation, where the woman was "lured" into Knight's room.
"This was, by any reckoning, a serious sexual assault," Justice Muir said.
There was the further aggravating feature of the extent of psychological trauma the woman suffered.
"In some ways, the offending epitomises all that women have, for decades now, properly called time on - an older male in a position of authority, abusing that authority for his own sexual gratification and seemingly without
reference to the psychological consequences for a younger woman wishing only to go about her dedicated career," Justice Muir said.
Both he and Judge Geoghegan noted Knight did not have any remorse.
Justice Muir said that, in light of this, the offer of emotional harm repayment was "highly transactional".
"Essentially, what Mr Knight is requesting is that he be granted a discharge on payment of the sum of $10,000, all the while maintaining the offending never occurred and, relatedly, without any expression of remorse."
Mitchell pointed to the wider benefits of the offer - compensation for the woman and that a "formerly productive member of society" could then return to tax-paying employment.
Justice Muir said that, while this had "superficial attraction", it essentially "commercialises" the justice process, potentially exposing it to criticism of a two-tier justice system depending on financial status.
He also said future employers should be entitled to assess for themselves the risk Knight might pose, considering the requirements of a potential role, likely engagement between Knight and female staff and any therapeutic work Knight might have done since the conviction.
'He'll never be able to work for emergency services again'
The woman told NZME the incident continued to affect her, but she was regaining her confidence.
She still had reservations about working alone with men.
"I'm well aware that the majority of people are good people and it's [in] very rare circumstances that people make crappy decisions but it's definitely always in the back of my mind."
The outcome of the court proceedings had helped bring closure.
"I feel confident knowing ... that he'll never be able to work for emergency services again."
She felt there was behaviour leading up to the incident that made it feel premeditated, including efforts to control where she went and what she did. She didn't believe it was just a momentary lapse in judgement on Knight's part.
Knight was sentenced to six months' home detention in May. Because of the appeal, name suppression was continued until the High Court made its ruling public.
Knight was contacted by NZME, through his lawyer, but did not wish to comment.
NZME cannot identify which emergency service organisation was overseeing the operation because of suppression orders to protect the victim's identity.
However, the organisation said that, after Cyclone Gabrielle, it conducted an internal review of its emergency response teams and identified several areas in which it could make improvements.
"Consequently, we have appointed a national manager to develop and implement standardised policies across our emergency response teams," a spokesperson said.
Where to get help:
Sexual Violence
Victim Support 0800 842 846
Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00
HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655 - push 0 at the menu
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) 022 344 0496
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
- This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.