For 17 years, Katrina Jones was held captive as a sex slave.

“You don’t need a cage to kidnap somebody, you terrify them. They brainwash, they terrify you.”

Katrina Jones was 15 when she met the man who would imprison her for the next 17 years of her life.

She was regularly sexually abused, choked until she was unconscious and beaten, often naked.

During the next 17 years, Jones gave birth to four children and was completely powerless against her captor, Allan Rosewarne.

Speaking to 3News, Jones admitted that when she met 24-year-old Rosewarne in 1989, she was “pretty naive and innocent and would do anything for anyone, even if it got myself (sic) in trouble, just to make everyone happy.”

This meant that Jones was quickly convinced to drop out of school and move to the small and isolated New Zealand town of Whangamomona with a population of just 20 people a year after meeting Rosewarne.

After moving in together, their relationship quickly became abusive.

Jones described the abuse in graphic detail, telling 3News, “My head smashed against the wall, choking me unconscious (sic), stabbing me with forks, broken brooms, a lot of the time it was naked.”

Jones was also made to be a sex slave to Rosewarne. The house they lived in had no running water, there was fresh sewage outside and 12 big dogs inside.

According to Jones, Rosewarne “treated the dogs better” than her.

Rosewarne was extremely controlling. He would oversee all of their money, dictate what she ate (so much so that she dropped to a mere 35kg), she wasn’t allowed outside alone and he monitored her phone calls.

“He wouldn’t let me out of his sight. I’d lost all hope for myself, all self love, and my spirit was gone so I’d completely given up on myself,” Jones told 3News.

“He would lock the kids in the other room because he knew I didn’t want to escape without them.”

Jones was confident Rosewarne knew exactly what he was doing, telling 3News he would probably think, “I trained this bitch well.”

Jones felt completely isolated, and completely powerless.

“You’re not allowed to talk to anyone since you’re (sic) 15 you can’t…. you don’t know what to do.”

Two of Jones’ children, Cheyanne  and Shoshanny, have also opened up about their lives under Rosewarne.

Shoshanny said they would watch on as Rosewarne beat their mum, but felt unable to stop it.

“So much times (sic) I felt like I just needed someone to step in and just try stop it, but I was too scared.”

His sister Cheyanne also spoke of the time she heard Rosewarne beating her mother in the middle of the night.

“There was blood everywhere and all I could think was ‘she couldn’t of (sic) survived this’, and I really thought she was dead.”

Despite the constant and extreme abuse and the horrifying condition of the house, the police only visited the family once.

Unfortunately, they spoke to Jones in front of Rosewarne and as such, she felt too intimidated and terrified to speak openly about their living conditions.

Jones did escape to her parent’s house once and spent 3 weeks there with her children. However, her parents went back to work and Rosewarne broke in and forcibly removed Jones and her kids.

“He said I’m going to rape and kill your parents and your kids if you don’t go back.”

After this, Jones made the decision to leave again, and wanted to make sure it was for good.

“My next escape I had to do properly.”

She packed a bag with warm socks and a change of clothes, and had it ready for when she could leave.

“I only had that one hour at night to try and do my plan of escape. I couldn’t trust anyone around here. I couldn’t trust my kids just in case.”

Making her escape in the middle of the night, a severely malnourished and terrified Jones was forced to walk for 26 km across steep countryside.

Rosewarne soon realised she was missing, and set out to search for her. Jones was prepared for this however, and hid when she suspected he was nearby.

Once she had reached safety, she phoned a woman’s refuge and police went to her house immediately.

“It wasn’t the courage, it was just the desperation. I had to, I was dying, and my skin was melting I was that malnourished. My kids were starving, I just, I had to.”

Although Jones’ was successful in her escape attempt, Rosewarne was not immediately sent to prison as Katrina didn’t press charges.

Instead, he met another woman who he drugged with morphine in order to make her an addict.

Luckily she was also able to escape and Rosewarne was arrested and sentenced to preventative detention after she went to the police.

According to the Ministry of Justice, New Zealand, Preventative Detention is an indefinite sentence and is only used as a last resort for judges.

Understandably, Jones believes this is a fair sentence and Rosewarne should not be allowed back on the streets.

“He’s a danger to anyone he walks passed.”

Unfortuantely Jones’ ordeal can never truly be over. Severely brain damaged from the beatings she received, she has been told to always wear a helmet.

But this doesn’t matter to her.

“I was just happy I was free. That was all I wanted. We had no clothes, no food, but it didn’t matter, we were free.”

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