Police claimed there was lack of evidence on the rape complaint of a 13-year-old Kiwi girl but could the hesitation to file a case be because one of the Roast Busters members is the son of a police officer?

YouTube/evidancenews3

The victim said that notorious Auckland-based group would not have grown to its current status had police authorities acted upon her rape complaint against the group in 2011.

YouTube/Renz Bennett

However, the situation then appeared like the chicken-and-egg riddle since the police were hampered then by lack of evidence against the group of young men who recruit new members via Facebook and then rape drunken young women and name them on the social networking site.

The alleged victim recounted she was the only girl in a room with three males, one on each side and the third one in front, who hopped on her.

"It was pretty terrifying. I was more traumatised by the fact I was 13 and losing my virginity," Stuff.co.nz quoted the victim.

The trauma was repeated when the police asked her to act out what happened by using dolls. What she was wearing during the incident was brought up and when she described her attire that day, the police commented that her manner of dressing provoked the men.

The sexual abuse was committed on several of her friends also by Roast Buster members whom they accused of destroying their lives.

"If something was done, it would have never happened ... they've gotten away with so much," the victim said,

However, police said her complaint is still part of an ongoing probe. If there will be new supporting evidence they can uncover, they will review their previous decision not to pursue the case two years ago due to insufficient evidence.

Included in the police investigation are inappropriate and offensive comments allegedly made to the victim, who added that one of her alleged rapists apologised to her on Facebook and admitted she was 100 per cent right.

With the public focus on the case, some of the Roast Buster members have been identified. Two of them were named by a female friend, 18-year-old Leilani Hargreaves, who even took their side.

Ms Hargreaves insisted that most of the girls the Roast Busters were involved with knew what they were getting into, and that most of them even had group sex with Roast Buster members, who include her friends Beraiah Hales, 17, and Joseph Parker, 18.

"It was all a joke to start with, but it escalated into a lot more when the girls started wanting it. Everyone knew about them, they knew exactly what they did yet they still hung out with them," Ms Hargreaves said on TV3 on Tuesday night. She stressed the two are not rapists but cool dudes, and added drunken group sex is normal in West Auckland.

But Kim McGregor, executive director of Rape Prevention Education, said she did not believe the young women would go into a gang-rape situation and eventually be publicly humiliated if they knew that would be the outcome.

The police said they could not lay charges against the Roast Buster members because none of the girls are willing to file a formal complaint. Even if they interviewed some group members this week, they were not closer to filing yet a case in court.

On Thursday, Police Minister Anne Tolley asked the Independent Police Conduct Authority to investigate the police handling of the 13-year-old Kiwi girl's complaint against the Roast Busters after a she met with Police Commissioner Peter Marshall.

"Parents of young girls need to have confidence that complaints to Police about sexual assault are investigated thoroughly and appropriately," The New Zealand Herald quoted the minister.

RELATED STORIES