Operation Sinatra Survivor Honorarium Fund has been set up for survivors from the Mama Hooch sexual assault case. Photo: Givealittle
A young woman linked to the Christchurch Mama Hooch sexual assault case hopes funds from a Givealittle page will help survivors rebuild their lives.
Brothers Danny and Roberto Jaz were last month sentenced to lengthy jail terms for drugging and sexually assaulting patrons at their family-owned businesses, but they have lodged an appeal.
The legal aid bill for the two has reached almost $900,000.
A survivor, whose name is suppressed, said she was inspired to launch the fundraiser after hearing other survivors' victim impact statements, and learning about the financial toll the assaults had taken on them.
She said the women were under enormous pressure during the prolonged court process.
"For some, the impact has been so overwhelming it's infiltrated every aspect of their lives. Education and studies have been impacted. Some have had to move cities and one even moved to Australia to escape the perpetrators. Others have had to take time off work to support their recovery and experienced significant loss of wages from not being able to work full-time," she said.
"All these additional things the survivors have had to go through really makes it so difficult."
She said it would be up to the 31 survivors to decide how they wanted to spend the money, but she hoped it would help them to rebuild their lives.
Survivor Sophie Brown, who had waived her name suppression, said victims needed help.
"From my perspective, it's a lot of the paying for counselling, the time taken to be in court and also deal with court as well - there's a few ways you have to mentally prepare for the fact you're going to go and be questioned by a bunch of lawyers - so taking the time out is the right thing to do for you in that situation, but obviously it comes at a cost," she said.
"Money isn't going to fix things, time in jail isn't going to fix things either, because at the end of the day, these women, including myself, still have to live with what happened, but a little something goes a long way in repairing some of the damage."
Danny Jaz (left) and Roberto Jaz appear in Christchurch District Court on 7 February 2023. Photo: Supplied / POOL
Brown was frustrated that the Jaz brothers were not ordered to pay reparations to survivors.
"Furthermore, they relied on taxpayer money to fund their trial. The fact that our [survivors'] money is being spent to defend the men who abused us is frankly disgusting," she said.
Ministry of Justice figures showed almost $500,000 in legal aid was paid to the lawyer for Danny Jaz, and almost $400,000 to Roberto Jaz's lawyer.
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