Tauranga man Joshua Oliver has been identified as the man who raped a woman after work.

Oliver was found guilty by a jury on a charge of sexual assault by unlawful sexual intercourse but could not yet be named due to a suppression order.

The woman he abused said in her victim impact statement that his attack was “one of the most extreme offenses a person can endure.”

During the trial earlier this year, the court heard there was a work event at the Tauranga races.

After the incident, a group of people came to the house and the victim, who was work related and friends with the homeowner, said she was having a good time socializing with her longtime friends and people she had just met.

She was very drunk and could hardly remember most of the evening.

The woman went to bed in one of the spare rooms but said she woke up in the early hours of the morning to a man “forcibly” raping her.

She went back to sleep, telling him, “Get off me,” but said that when she woke up later that morning and went to the bathroom, she felt pain.

She looked in the bathroom mirror and thought, “Why the hell did that really happen?”

At the man’s sentencing, she told the judge the physical and emotional impact was severe: she was unable to sit comfortably for days after the attack and was in pain while traveling to the police station and attending medical appointments.

Oliver sought permanent name suppression for reasons that cannot be disclosed. His plea was rejected by Judge Bill Lawson on November 1, and Oliver’s lawyer said the judge’s decision would be appealed.

However, the Tauranga District Court Clerk confirmed the appeal had been rejected and his temporary injunction had expired.

The woman he attacked told NZME after ending her name suppression that she wanted to send a message to those who commit sexual violence about the impact their actions have on others.

She said survivors of sexual violence are “speaking out”, the world is changing and perpetrators cannot “get away with it”.

In early November, Oliver was sentenced to six years and three months in prison and ordered to pay $2,500 for emotional distress.

The woman told the judge his actions had a profound impact on her life and her family.

“It took away precious time from our children to spend with their mother,” she said.

“I was once very involved in their studies and activities, but now I rarely get to pick them up or take them to school.”

They lost the “carefree, happy mother they once knew” as she sometimes struggled to get out of bed and constantly feared for their safety.

“They wake me up at night, scared and in need of comfort, only to find my mother, who herself is afraid of being woken.”

This affected her relationship with her husband, as “the joy of (their) connection was overshadowed by these painful memories of the rape.”

“I know it had a huge impact on him. It’s not easy to live knowing that another man raped your wife in such a disgusting way.”

The woman said she was re-traumatized by the trial, but she wanted Oliver to never do anything like that again.

During the trial, she said she was very drunk the night she was raped and couldn’t remember much of the evening.

She was taken to a bedroom and essentially blacked out before waking up to a man “forcibly” raping her.

Judge Lawson told Oliver the woman was in an environment where she had a right to feel safe.

“You were both taken to separate rooms and she had a right to expect to remain in that room without any interference or contact from you,” he said.

“You took advantage of her vulnerability. You seriously penetrated her… while she was sleeping or passed out. You held her in place to allow this to happen.

However, Judge Lawson also took into account Oliver’s letter of remorse.

“It makes clear that you acknowledge that you wronged the victim in this way, and you acknowledge that you caused her physical and emotional harm.”

The judge granted a 5% discount for remorse, starting with a seven year and four month prison sentence.

“Your expression of remorse demonstrates that you have thought things through… You accepted that your behavior caused significant impact on the victim.

“Very often in such cases we find that victims are left in a state of doubt as the accused maintain their innocence and do not accept the verdict. Here you accepted what you did.”

Oliver also offered $2,500 in damages. The judge said that while this could not compensate for the financial loss suffered by the woman and her family, it was still an expression of expressed remorse.

Oliver was also given a 10% discount on background factors.

Hannah Bartlett is an Open Justice reporter based in Tauranga for NZME. She previously covered courts and local government in Nelson Mailand before that he was a radio journalist for Newstalk ZB.