Mama Hooch sexual assaults: Brothers to be sentenced

Two brothers who drugged and committed sexual offences against more than 30 young patrons at Christchurch bar Mama Hooch are to be sentenced today.

Danny and Roberto Jaz used their positions in family businesses, as bar manager at Mama Hooch and chef at neighbouring restaurant Venuti, to routinely spike drinks, drug and sexually violate people from 2015 to 2018.

A police investigation, Operation Sinatra, was launched in July 2018 when two women reported they had been drugged and sexually assaulted while out at the venues.

Both have since closed.

Over the next few years, dozens more victims came forward.

During a nine-week judge-alone trial earlier this year, it emerged the Jaz brothers had targeted 32 people – mainly young women aged between 18 and 24.

Following their convictions, lead investigator detective inspector Scott Anderson said the men had preyed on their victims in a disturbing way.

“One of their sole purposes was actually using the bar for their own gratification and servicing what they thought was quite all right for them, which it obviously wasn’t,” he said.

“It just goes to show how premeditated they were in targeting vulnerable people, in particular young girls, to do what they wanted with.”

Complainants described “a night like no other” when recounting their experiences, Anderson said.

“Some of the effects [of the drink spiking or drugging] included things like blackouts, not being in control of their body. Some have described feeling like being under water,” he said.

The siblings also shared graphic accounts of their offending and how they pursued victims in a WhatsApp group chat.

At one point, while being investigated by police, Danny Jaz, 40, blamed patrons for crimes he and his brother had committed.

When the allegations first surfaced in 2018, he told Stuff: “If we caught [those responsible], God help them. I’d break their hands and hand them over to the police”.

Anderson said Danny Jaz was deflecting, before admitting a number of sexual assault charges at trial.

“He knew all along when he made that comment that he had been sexually offending against these females,” he said.

Judge Paul Mabey KC further found him and his brother Roberto Jaz, 38, guilty on a slew of charges at the trial’s conclusion in April.

They included rape, sexual violation, indecent assault, stupefying, drink spiking and offering to supply Class B drugs.

Roberto Jaz was also found guilty of making intimate visual recordings and possession of an objectionable image.

Two other men were also charged in relation to the Jaz brothers – one was acquitted on all but a minor charge of drug supply and the other was found not guilty of one sexual violation charge.

At the time, victims’ advocate Ruth Money said the men’s crimes were repugnant.

“It’s absolutely horrific from a survivor perspective and it’s the ultimate in abuse and control,” she said.

“They are stupefying their survivors, they’re assaulting them and they’re recording it so they can share it among their so-called friends. It’s absolutely deplorable.”

Danny and Roberto Jaz’s sentencing was due to start 10am Thursday.

The New Zealand Herald reported Roberto Jaz was assaulted at Christchurch Men’s Prison while in custody.

The assault reportedly happened in May, a day after the siblings’ name suppression had lapsed.

Staff responded to a fight in a day room involving two prisoners, the prison’s acting director Garron Starr told RNZ at the time.

“Staff reviewed CCTV footage and identified one of the prisoners had been assaulted an hour earlier in an exercise yard by two prisoners, including the person involved in the day room incident,’ he said.

“None of the prisoners involved required medical attention.”