A group calling for action to stop sexual violence against women and children has welcomed the lifting of name suppression for the predatory Christchurch-based brothers, Daniel Jaz (40) and Roberto Jaz (38).

However, it says a spotlight also needs to be shone on a larger group of men around them.

Group chat exchanges across various apps including WhatsApp and Viber, that formed part of the trial evidence, showed the rapists joked with and shared photos and accounts of their hunting down, drugging, raping and denigrating of young women with a much wider group.

In one reported chat, one of the rapist’s bragged, ‘I smashed her’. When asked ‘how did you seal it…I thought you said she wasn’t keen’ he responded with a slang term for Rohypnol, a date rape drug. The pair then laughed via chat.

Stop Demand’s founder, Denise Ritchie, says “Each one of these group chat members would have had numerous opportunities to call out these rapists’ behaviour or report them to police. It seems none did. Each of these men were collusive bystanders to the serial rape of numerous women. Worse, some clearly found the raping of women to be funny.”

Ritchie says, “Each one of these men holds some culpability. Even if not in law, then morally and ethically. They allowed rape and the sexual denigration of women to occur. They each should be challenged to take a good, hard look at themselves. These men should hang their heads in shame, particularly if they are partners to women or fathers to daughters.”

Stop Demand says that the conclusion of this case against two rapists should not be the end of the conversation, rather the beginning of another. Why did other men find this behaviour okay? Why did other men, knowing of the rapes, do nothing to stop it?

© Scoop Media