Killer held sway over street kids

It has been 2½ years since 18-year-old Rachel, not her real name, saw Thomas Christie.

On Thursday, she faced her fears sitting in the back of the High Court at Christchurch to watch a jury find the 26-year-old drifter guilty of the manslaughter and indecent assault of 16-year-old Shaun Finnerty.

His co-accused, Sonny Avon Rehu, 32, was acquitted of the same charges.

Rachel never met Finnerty, but became close friends with his family at the end of the trial, shedding some light on what made so many young people look to Christie, known as Tom-Tom, like "God".

Rachel met Tom-Tom on Christchurch streets after running away from an abusive home at 13.

She met a friend drinking in town with Tom-Tom, and a lifestyle of drinking, taking drugs and working on the streets as a prostitute began.

She said Tom-Tom took advantage of his young followers' innocence and rebellious natures to persuade them to steal for him, hustle money, and even sell their bodies on the streets – to pay for booze and drugs.

"We thought the sun shone out [Tom-Tom's] a... He's just got this charm. He could be lying through his teeth about something but you would fall for his charm. He knows they are innocent, rebellious teenagers and makes friends with us so we feel cared about, so we do anything he asks us to do."

Rachel knew of six others who prostituted themselves for Tom-Tom.

"He just said the money we could get would get us absolutely boozed. His demeanour was – you have to do it. After a while, we had already lost all our self-respect, so didn't really care any more. I was 14 – I was one of the youngest. The oldest would have been about 19. He would slowly work on them to get them to do it and justify it. We could not see through it back then."

He would often give the younger ones alcohol, and at 13 and 14 they thought it was cool, she said. "It was pretty much what we could get our hands on. We would not even ask what the pill was.

"You are pretty much off your face half the time. We didn't need much encouraging – we were rebellious teens.

"It's the way he had with words, he would convince us that he was a person we needed and he would keep us safe. People regarded him as God."

It was not just his way with words. Tom-Tom also threatened them with violence.

"If you didn't steal for him, or took too long, he threatened you with everything.

"I never noticed how controlling he was until now."

There were about 20 who used to hang out together on the streets, who regarded themselves as a "little family", she said.

Rachel said the group, including Tom-Tom, often slept in a 24-hour internet cafe that has since closed.

"We would sleep out the back or on the chairs, and just parks and that – Victoria Park – it just depended where we ended up at the end of the night really."

Rachel finally cut ties with Tom-Tom and the associated lifestyle when she became pregnant at the age of 15.

"I got off the booze and drugs .. I decided it wasn't worth it."

Despite cutting ties, she was still fearful of Tom-Tom, she said.

"I don't want to be scared of him for the rest of my life."