A mother of a teenage daughter has been jailed by the Auckland High Court for keeping her daughter as a sex slave.
Kasmeer Lata, a Fijian woman who moved to New Zealand with her children in 2014, has been sentenced to jail for six years and 11 months.
The mother was found guilty of selling her daughter's body nearly 1000 times over a period of two years.
The abuse started on the victim's 15th birthday and ended when she escaped in November 2016 and reported the crime to authorities. Ms Lata and her partner Avneesh Sehgal pleaded guilty to the charges. Mr Sehgal's trial is scheduled for next week. He will be sentenced next month.
Ms Lata's lawyer Karl Trotter told the court that his client was sorry. "Ms. Lata has come to the realisation that she may well be the most despised woman in New Zealand, that will be her burden," Trotter said. He refused to make further comment when he was approached by SBS Hindi.
Public prosecutor Natalie Walker said this was an unprecedented case in New Zealand and was a gross offence of the most exploitative kind, the Radio New Zealand reported.
Justice Matthew Muir said Ms Lata's offence had caused "long-lasting if not irreparable damage to her daughter" as she "effectively pimped her out" but a lighter sentence was given for her guilty plea.
COMMUNITY SHOCKED
New Zealand's Indian and Fijian-Indian communities are in shock over the incident.
"I could not believe when I heard the news on TV," said Satya Dutt who is the president of Hindi Language and Culture Trust of New Zealand.
"It is shocking. Everybody in the community is shocked. We the people of Indian-origin work very hard. We come here and start the life afresh. We work hard to bring our children up; to provide them with the best of education. And the community has contributed a lot to the progress of the country. Our people have touched new heights in their fields, but such incidents pain us a lot," said Dutt.
