Danny Jaz and his younger brother, Roberto. Photo: NZ Herald/George Heard
A father whose daughter helped to jail Christchurch sexual predators Danny and Roberto Jaz said she would have reconsidered going to police if she had known how long the legal process would take.
The brothers used their positions in their family businesses - as bar manager at Mama Hooch and chef at neighbouring restaurant Venuti - to routinely spike drinks, drug and sexually violate patrons from 2015 to 2018.
Yesterday, Roberto Jaz was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and his brother Danny to 16.5 years.
The sentences brought an end to five years of complex and detailed investigation work, and a drawn-out prosecution process. The father of a survivor said his daughter was relieved the gruelling case was over.
"My daughter was saying to me, if she knew how taxing and how long this was going to take she would've thought twice about going to the police," he said.
"Which is unfortunate, and due to her actions these guys are now in prison, but it doesn't exactly give other women confidence that they'll be listened to and that perpetrators will be quickly dealt with."
The father said although he welcomed the brothers' lengthy jail sentences, he was frustrated it had taken this long to put them behind bars.
"All of the impact statements from these women all had one thing in common, which was their fear of seeing these guys out in the city," he said.
Detective Inspector Scott Anderson, who led the investigation, said the case had been hanging over survivors for five years, because of delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and legal issues.
"The majority of them started out as teenagers in a very important part of their life, and it's had a massive impact," he said.
"It's unfortunately just the way the justice system is working that it took as long as it did. I know that [The Ministry of] Justice are looking at ways of speeding up that sort of thing."
Anderson said the survivors were relieved the legal process had come to an end, but would live with the Jaz brothers' crimes for a long time.
