Photo: RF. Content warning: This story discusses the sexual abuse of children. A list of helplines is available at the bottom of this page. A woman trafficked as a small child says the extent of sex trafficking in New Zealand is hidden and underestimated. She says significant government action is needed to help survivors report abuse, get free and reach professional support. Most cases that hit the headlines here happen elsewhere - cases of New Zealanders trafficking and exploiting people overseas, some as tourists and others who got caught after emigrating.
Christchurch man Matthew Isaac Wolfe pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, admitting he moved to the US from New Zealand in , to work for fellow New Zealander Michael James Pratt. He was sentenced to 14 years' jail. Pratt was sentenced to life in prison for child sexual abuse material, sexual exploitation and sexual assault in the United States.
But it also happens here - children being trafficked for sex, prostitution or forced marriage. Synteche Collins was almost four when she was taken from her family overseas, and was later sexually exploited as an eight-year-old in New Zealand.
She has early memories of the events, but has also been told some of what happened, and believed there was an organised crime element. And they basically spent their whole life savings doing so and that really left us in a dire situation. But it meant that I stayed alive and I wasn't on-sold to someone else. She was not trafficked to New Zealand, but after coming here at the age of eight she was sexually exploited.
New Zealander Michael James Pratt was sentenced to life in prison in for child sex abuse material, sexual exploitation and sexual assault in the United States.
