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WARNING: This story refers to sexual assault

For serial rapist John Hope Muchirahondo - it seems no woman was off limits.

Drunk women. Women passed out or sleeping. Women he was in casual relationships with. Mothers of his children. Partners. There was no age preference, no “type”.

During his trial in the High Court at Christchurch, the 38-year-old claimed that any sexual act was consensual, that the women wanted him, pursued him, even begged him.

Even those vomiting, snoring, unconscious.

Even those who said no repeatedly and tried to fight him off in the minutes, seconds and during the “sex”.

He laughed when the Crown described him as a predator.

But after an unprecedented almost 10 days of deliberating, a jury found Muchirahondo guilty of raping eight women and on a further six charges of sexually violating them and one other woman.

Many of these acts were filmed - most without the knowledge or consent of the women.

Muchirahondo will be sentenced in December where the Crown will request for the indefinite sentence of preventive detention to be granted.

Sentencing marks the end of the prosecution - but the sentence Muchirahondo has given his victims will never be over.

Sasha (not her real name) is one of the offender’s ex-partners.

She spoke in court of being raped numerous times - when she was “too drunk” and even after she told him repeatedly, “I don’t want to. I won’t have sex with you.”

Muchirahondo denied three charges of raping Sasha. The jury found him guilty of one rape in 2019 and acquitted him on the other two counts.

“I find it hard when people say to me ‘at least it’s over’,” she told the Herald.

“It doesn’t just end when it [the trial] finishes. For us, it’s never over.”

Sasha will never forget the times her ex-partner ignored her wishes and simply “took what he wanted”.

“It is a really hard feeling to describe… your autonomy is taken and your body is at someone else’s disposal,” she said.

“I had this idea in my head about rape - that it happened to women jogging in the park. I only found out after it happened to me that most of the time it is someone you know.”

Sasha started dating Muchriahondo - who was older than her - after meeting him at a central Christchurch bar in 2009.

After that their relationship was “on and off” and they sometimes had consensual sex.

In 2019 she decided she did not want to sleep with Muchirahondo again and sent him a message telling him that.

She said he was no longer welcome at her house.

“He came over after work and said ‘you don’t get to make that decision… it’s not your decision or not if I was to sleep with you’,” she told police in her evidential video interview.

“That’s the way he controlled me and made me feel like I cannot decide what happens to my body.”

John Hope Muchirahondo. Photo / Facebook

During the trial, the court heard that in early 2019 Muchirahondo arrived at Sasha’s house to drop off her child after football training.

He asked to use the toilet.

She was reluctant but her youngster was standing nearby and she did not want to “appear to be an ogre”, so agreed he could come in.

Muchirahondo used the toilet. He then approached Sasha and started pushing her down the hall towards her bedroom.

“At that moment I knew what he wanted to do and I didn’t want to do it so I said, ‘I don’t want to have sex with you’,” she told police.

“He kept pushing me. I said ‘I won’t have sex with you’. He heard me because he laughed. I didn’t fight back, I didn’t yell or scream.’

When they got to her bedroom Sasha lay on the bed.

“At this point, I’m feeling quite trapped and like I didn’t have a choice… like my feelings about it - not wanting to do it - didn’t matter. It was going to happen anyway - he didn’t stop when I said no, he didn’t acknowledge it at all he just laughed.

“I was scared. He wasn’t a stranger and I’d had sex with him before so I thought ‘I’ll just lie here and let him do what he wants… my son’s in the lounge and if I don’t yell out and I don’t fight my son won’t get hurt… he wouldn’t know this was happening, he wouldn’t be afraid’.”

She said Muchirahondo began raping her and she turned her head away.

“I was feeling sad and used, like I was an object and not in charge of my own body and not allowed a say,” she said.

“It must have shown to him - I had tears in my eyes. He said ‘you look sad’ but he didn’t stop.

“It was a bit rough. I felt… like I had no choice… and belittled.”

She recalled thinking: “All of my objections are falling on deaf ears… I’m stupid to say no ‘cos I don’t have a choice. Lying back and waiting until it’s over, that’ll be the quickest way to get him out.”

After the rape, Muchirahondo got dressed and left.

He would later tell police Sasha had consented - but the jury’s decision saw him convicted of the rape.

During the trial the jury heard Sasha’s evidence about two other times she maintains Muchirahondo raped her.

He was acquitted on the earlier charges. Sasha accepts the jury’s verdicts, but stands by her evidence including what she told police in two separate interviews.

Recordings of those interviews were played to the jury.

“I said no one time… and he pinned my arms behind my head. I was telling him no and trying to get him off me. He just laughed and had sex with me,” she said.

“I never thought it was rape because we’d had consensual sex [several times earlier in the night]. I didn’t think it was wrong I guess.

“I thought it wouldn’t count if I said no because I’d just had sex with him. I thought ‘what’s the point in telling anyone, it’s kind of my fault’.”

The jury heard that during their relationship Muchirahondo constantly wanted sex and if she didn’t want to “it didn’t matter to him”.

“I felt like I had no choice… I felt pretty powerless,” she said in her police interview.

“He wanted to have sex several times a day… one time it had happened so many times and I was tired., I said ‘no I want to go to sleep’. He pinned my arms back on the bed and laughed… I started to feel quite frightened and said ‘no, I don’t want to’ but he didn’t stop.

“He told me that in Africa a woman’s supposed to say no and run away… and that’s playing ‘hard to get’... that was his explanation.

“It didn’t sit well with me.”

John Hope Muchirahondo, who was born in Zimbabwe, will be sentenced in December. Photo / Facebook

Other times in their relationship she told police she “didn’t want it to happen” but “couldn’t say no” or “didn’t feel like I could stop it”.

Sometimes she was “too drunk” or “almost unconscious”.

“There’s no way to stop it and the sooner it’s over the better,” she said.

“I didn’t see it as rape at the time… because I didn’t have a greater understanding of it being wrong…

“I had a limited view or opinion on what rape was. I felt like it was… if you were a stranger in a park or something.

“And we’d had consensual sex before so I thought that meant that he could do it again even if I didn’t want to.

“I didn’t see it as rape at the time. I blamed myself.”

In court, Muchirahondo’s lawyer told the jury that Sasha may have said “no” in the hallway but she did not say “no” in the bedroom.

Therefore, she had consented - or Muchirahondo had a “reasonable belief” she was consenting.

He said: “She gave in… she had no willpower because she loved him”.

Her later complaint to police was “false”, the lawyer said, and the result of “bitterness” towards Muchirahondo, to “gain the upper hand” in the “strife” in their relationship.

While the jury concluded that Muchirahondo had raped Sasha in 2019, they were not convinced beyond reasonable doubt on the Crown’s case for the other two charges.

But Sasha is clear - to this day and forever - that she was raped.

She spoke to the Herald after giving evidence in court.

“I think he’s an animal… he’s disgusting,” she said.

“He’s got problems. I think he is a psychopath. He is not safe.

“He is very charming, initially. That’s the dangerous part - he can be very charming, charismatic.

“But I think he hates women - he really hates women. He is an awful man.”

Sasha said the lengthy investigation and trial process had been “really hard” but it was only the beginning of her journey.

After the last rape, Sasha told a friend what had happened. The friend went to the police to tell them what she knew of Muchirahondo - her concerns based on what she had seen and heard of him with Sasha.

“The police needed to know who they were dealing with, that this man was dangerous,” she said.

“I told them ‘you need to know the depths of depravity of this man’s mind’. He is disgusting.”

Initially, Sasha’s case went nowhere. Muchirahondo said they’d had consensual sex. It was a classic “he said, she said” and there was not enough evidence for police to take it any further.

“That was difficult,” Sasha said.

“Reporting it was so hard. And then finding out it wasn’t taken seriously… I feel like that emboldened him, and led to him offending more.

“Reporting him was supposed to stop other women from getting hurt and it almost made it worse.”

Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz

SEXUAL HARM

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If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.