Dodgy allegations

Stuff reports:

In an interview with Stuff, Zhou Black claimed Black was also involved in a child-sex ring allegedly including high-profile Māori men and wealthy philanthropists.

But Zhou Black can offer no proof, can bring forward no witnesses, can name no dates, provide no paperwork or other concrete evidence required by police to prosecute or a court to convict the eight men she alleges are in the child-sex ring.

I blogged that the allegations seemed over the top initially. Then someone did lay a complaint with the Police. But now this story raises huge doubts on Zhou Black’s allegations.

I don’t think anyone can know for sure what Black may or may not have done. But one can be sure that Zhou Black’s version of events is highly suspect.

At interview at the Tauranga hotel, she was assisted and supported by her friend and spiritual adviser Pīata Tiaki-Turi.

This should be a huge warning sign. People with spiritual advisers tend to be, umm looking for a polite word, umm less than reliable.

A high-profile Māori leader learned, from his daughter, that his name was posted online, by supporters of Zhou Black, as being part of the alleged child-sex ring cited by Zhou Black.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, heard the news at home that he had been accused of raping the daughter now telling him about the social media post.

“It’s sick. That’s my baby. I would never hurt my baby,” he said.

“One would presume and pray that if these women thought I was hurting my daughter like this, they would go straight to the police, or better yet, they would uplift my daughter to safety.

“But they didn’t. Their first reaction was to climb to the top of Mauao (Mt Maunganui) and make claims of this nature on live video.

Definitely the wrong thing to do.

Back in the Tauranga hotel, Zhou Black is weeping as she is asked by Stuffto provide evidence for each of the eight names she has provided Stuff alleged to be part of a paedophile ring.

Tiaki-Turi joins the interview by phone. She acts as Zhou Black’s spiritual adviser or matakite – someone considered to possess a supernatural ability to see visions of the future.

A better term for them is scammers or crooks.

Zhou Black is asked why an academic appears on her child-sex ring list.

“He’s a very wealthy man … He knew Awa through that time. I don’t know how long,” she says.

No victim had identified the academic.

“Got anything to add, sis?” Zhou Black asks Tiaki-Turi.

“Um, it’s just a connection that he has with a lot of the people associated to Awa,” Tiaki-Turi offers.

Sounding very much like the spiritual adviser is the driving force behind these allegations.

That fourth man was named because he donated money toward a teen who attended an overseas kapa haka trip.

Tiaki-Turi: “We think that could have been early recruitment.”

Wow I once donated money to Paige Hareb. That must have meant I was trying to recruit her.

A philanthropist made the list because he wanted to be a “great white whale.”

Tiaki-Turi: “That was really through all of those codes and [him] wanting to be the great white whale which is pretty much a myth, but when you put all those code words together, like a submarine shark – it comes up.

“It is a mythical shark, a great white. So that, based on who all these men are and linking to each other … He should not be discluded.”

WTF???

When some of the eight men learned of the reasons why they had been named on the list, they were horrified.

One contemplated suicide.

“I walked into a hui and the parents in the meeting snatched their children as I walked past,” he said.

“Once someone associates you with child-sex offending, you become poison, despite there being no evidence or truth. You are tried and convicted in the most public and unfair system – the court of social media.

Poor bastard.

This witch hunt is because of the affairs Awanui had on Ani and his will. But there are two sides to every story and let’s just say Awa was left a broken man when his wife had an affair with another teacher. (Zhou Black confirmed to Stuff she had an affair in 1999 which she disclosed to Black and her whānau. Tiaki-Turi said the affair happened because Black had emotionally left the marriage to Zhou Black)

“Look, we had affairs on our wives. Back in the early 2000s, yes, we were part of a group of guys, like an old boys’ network, that had each other’s backs with our wives.

“We slept with prostitutes and had one-night stands – with women, not children.

“Anihera knows about our [Facebook] group. She knows that wasn’t a child-sex ring.”

So there was a group of guys who cheated on their wives and had a Facebook group where they arranged sex with women. Not going to win them Husband of the Year awards, but massively different to pedophilia.