Almost ten years before Tove was raped in the bathroom, Todd,* now in his early forties, was at his Auckland flat as a group of friends from the goth scene recovered from a party the night before.It was the winter of 2000, and they’d been partying at the Beam Bar on Victoria Street—a frequent hangout for the group. The Beam held semi-regular Goth nights, where those higher-up in the scene would play dedicated sets. Morgan was a regular organiser of the goth DJ nights, and today he was back at the flat, regaling the group a tale from the night before. “He’s basically the next day boasting, skiting, laughing, about this event to people,” Todd says.The story went that Morgan had been hanging out with a young woman, and they’d become engaged in some sort of sexual contact or flirtation in the toilets of the bar. Then, the interaction had shifted. “He’d bent this woman over, and I suppose maybe she was expecting intercourse? But not anal intercourse, and that he had just forced that upon her.”Seventeen years on, Todd struggles to recall the precise words Morgan used, but the story itself remains clear. “It was clear and explicit that that was what had happened. That there had been what had begun as consensual sexual activity between he and this woman in the toilet of the bar but then he had, without consent, anally penetrated her.”“I felt that we were all complicit in this. Everybody knew and we said nothing and we did nothing."
There’s also the fact that people generally are surprisingly poor at recognising rape for what it is, says Harrington. Studies indicate that if the word “rape” is swapped for phrases like “forced sex” or “non-consensual sex”, people are far more likely to admit to the behaviour and less likely to condemn it. There’s a kind of cognitive dissonance that goes on: “The language people use is incredibly important… They have an idea of what a rapist is and that doesn’t fit the idea of that guy, and so there’s a disconnect. They know he raped someone but they don’t see him as a rapist.”Those dynamics, she says, would be particularly present in a group where there were clear hierarchies; if people observed that others were doing nothing; and especially if behaviour went un-sanctioned by those higher up in the group. The behaviour could be particularly prevalent if the person in question was a popular authority figure.***Reznor*, now 35, also got to know Morgan between 2000 and 2002, his final years of University. When he first started spending time with the goth scene, Morgan was something of a personality, Reznor says. The goth crowd was fairly hierarchical, with those at the centre known as the “elders”. While Morgan was too new an addition to be a true elder, he’d become part of the inner circle, and was instrumental in organising the DJ nights and other social events the scene revolved around."The language people use is incredibly important… They have an idea of what a rapist is and that doesn’t fit the idea of that guy, and so there’s a disconnect. They know he raped someone but they don’t see him as a rapist."
He finds it hard to pin down a precise timeline now, but Reznor believes he first heard the story about Tove’s assault six years ago, around 2012. He didn’t know her well at all, and heard the barest outline.“At that stage it was sort of like, I heard about it but I didn’t actually really know Tove at the time. I knew who she was, sort of like an acquaintance, we’d bump into each other, that sort of thing but we didn’t really know each other at that point. I just heard about [the] bathroom incident.”"I don’t know why no one actually spoke out. I think people did try and speak out actually, a few of them did, whether or not they were listened to or not I don’t know."
In a meeting room above Karangahape Road, just a few hundred metres away from Whammy Bar, Emma’s* hands are shaking. She picks up the phone, looks at the photograph of Morgan and Tove outside the bar. “Sorry,” she says, covering her face. “I’m sorry. Just, I know that look.”"It felt like the most important thing in the world. That community. Being part of that scene. But because it was so hierarchical, the gatekeeping was so intense, you felt like you’d been accepted, but also like that could be rescinded at any moment."
Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellorRape Crisis – 0800 883 3000508MUSICHELP - free counseling specifically for members of the NZ music communityLifeline – 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE)Suicide Crisis Helpline – 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)Healthline – 0800 611 116Samaritans – 0800 726 666If you’d like to report a sexual assault to the Police, you can dial 111, or contact your nearest police station. There is no statute of limitations in New Zealand, and you can report a historic sexual assault at any time.