Labour took six months to act on a complaint that a party staffer sexually assaulted a teenage volunteer in his family home.
It was the staffer's second alleged assault on the 19-year-old woman.
Stuff can reveal the woman first reported some of the man's behaviour to senior Labour party figures - including President Nigel Haworth - in 2018, but the party did not open an investigation into multiple complaints about the man's conduct until February 2019.
The woman sent an email to Haworth, writing in the subject line: "I need your help."
The alleged incident took place in February 2018. The woman was supposed to meet the staffer at a public office, but when it was closed, he convinced her to go to his home.
As some of his family slept, he sexually assaulted her on the floor, she said.
"I tried to pull away but just sort of lay there frozen," she would later tell an internal Labour Party investigation panel.
"He pulled down my pants and grabbed me under my shirt. I can recall him pressing down on my thighs. Then over my ribs.
"I remember struggling, Hoping someone would come up the stairs or that some noise would make them come up. And trying to push him off me."
She told the panel she thought she would be safe in his home.
"After that, I just felt so stupid, like I was such an idiot for putting myself in that situation."
The woman says she was "just very scared" and didn't feel able to complain to police or the party.
However, two months after that attack - in April 2018 - she approached the Labour Party with concerns about the man's behaviour.
At that time, barrister Maria Austen was undertaking an investigation into separate allegations of sexual assault and underage drinking at a Labour summer camp in February 2018.
The woman told Austen, in a letter to the review's official email address, about an earlier incident - saying she was assaulted by the staffer at a Young Labour conference at Waikato University, in 2017.
He had hugged and repeatedly grabbed her from behind during the course of the evening, she said.
Later that night while the woman was resting on a mattress, the man allegedly lay down next to her, nuzzled her neck and when she opened her eyes, she found he'd placed his leg across her hips. He later left the conference gathering.
In the email, she did not tell Austen about the later alleged assault, because she was unsure who would read it. She had hoped to tell the barrister in person, but was not given the opportunity.
She also revealed a reluctance from other volunteers to come forward about the man's conduct, because of the "strong influence" he wields within the party.
Austen emailed back to say: "I am currently working through the most recent (2018) Labour Summer camp and would like to focus on finishing my interviewing in relation to that event ahead of speaking with you about your experience. Could I accordingly arrange to speak with you when at that point. I will let you know in advance when nearing that stage."
"My emails got consistently more desperate and panicky," the woman told Stuff. But the interview never took place. "She just went ahead and released the report."
She also told two mid-ranked party office holders about the incident.
She did not go into details about the alleged assault, but wrote in the subject line: "I need your help."
Haworth forwarded her message to assistant general secretary Dianna Lacy, who arranged to meet her, with Haworth, in Wellington, on August 15, 2018.
At the meeting, she recounted the serious sexual assault and told them of incidents she was aware of involving other women.
"It was quite formal. I read out some bullet points about what I had heard had happened to other women and what had happened to me…
"Dianna spoke about the values of [leader Jacinda] Ardern and how things might be able to change culturally. Nigel said they took it very seriously and 'we do feel for you'."
She added: "I'd given them a series of names of other women and stuff I thought they needed to look into.
"They said they'd contact them."
The woman convinced four other women to come forward to Lacy but nothing happened for months.
"The onus shouldn't have been on me, and no other resources were given to Dianna," she said.
The man showed up to a Young Labour Christmas party where some of the women were guests.
Labour's investigation panel was not established until February 2019. The allegations include bullying and harassment, as well as assault. In June, the panel decided no disciplinary action be taken, but the party agreed to an appeal after some of the women went public.
The women have never been shown a copy of the report.
"We don't know what evidence was discounted or included. We don't know what documents his team and his lawyers were shown," she said. "He's got all of our stories but we never received his right of reply.
"It was a big power imbalance. We did ask the party if there was any way we could get legal representation...Nigel said 'no, not necessary'."
The man, who Stuff cannot identify for legal reasons, is employed in the Labour Leader's Office, a unit set up to help Labour MPs with the everyday business of Parliament.
He is a public servant employed by Parliamentary Service, not the Labour Party. But Parliamentary Service can't investigate because no-one has made a complaint to them.
On Sunday, Stuff revealed Haworth barred complainants who raised concerns about alleged bullying and sexual harassment from the staffer from offices at one of Parliament's main buildings.
The woman told Labour's investigating panel that she lost confidence after the alleged attack last year.
"I went from someone so confident to so small, closed off. It was harder to defend my decisions, I became quieter... He made me weak and I hated myself for being complicit in what he did to me.
"I would find myself crumbling down at the sight of him, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat."
She also criticised the party for how it handled the situation.
"His actions screwed me up - but it was the ignorance and the party's reaction that broke me in the end too."
Haworth did not respond to questions. "Given these matters are now subject to appeal the Party won't be making any comment at this time," he said.
Stuff has approached the man, through his lawyer, for comment but has received no response.
Ardern has previously admitted the party did not handle the complaints well.
In August, Haworth promised new rules that would ensure serious allegations would be looked at by an independent expert. The seven complainants were invited to have their cases re-examined and given funding for legal advice.
At her post-Cabinet press briefing on Monday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was not happy about how her party had handled the allegations.
"I want to make it very clear that I am deeply concerned and incredibly frustrated by the process that has been undertaken by the Labour Party, but also obviously by the nature of the allegations.
"I was informed in the very beginning that the allegations made were not sexual in nature. That is obviously directly counter to what is being reported."
Ardern said the man at the centre of the complaints "has not been on the precinct since the day after these issues arose so I believe for roughly five weeks now and will not be on the precinct at least for the duration of the inquiry that's being undertaken by a QC appointed by the Labour Party."
The prime minister said the QC investigating the matter would report directly to her, and she expected findings within about four weeks.
