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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
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An Auckland sex
offender's 1997 conviction for rape and other crimes has been quashed after
his alleged victim retracted her complaint. The man, referred to in
a Court of Appeal judgment yesterday only as P, was freed on bail three
months ago pending the court hearing, even though he was then serving a
sentence of preventive detention imposed for further sex crimes. The governor-general
referred the case to the court. P was convicted of two counts of rape, three
counts of unlawful sexual connection and four charges of inducing a girl to
do an indecent act. The charges all related to the same girl and P was
sentenced to 11 years jail. Later the girl said he
did not sexually abuse her and she had given false evidence. In August 2002
she wrote to P saying so, and repeated her retraction the following month in
a sworn statement. The justice minister appointed Queens Counsel Ailsa Duffy
to investigate. In court the Crown
accepted that the convictions were unsafe. The Court of Appeal has formally
ordered a retrial but it is for the solicitor-general to decide if that
should proceed. As part of the
sentencing process, P made an admission about the offending to a psychiatrist
and that could form part of the evidence at any new trial. But P has now
retracted the admission. At the appeal hearing his lawyer said the admission
was unreliable because P knew it would help him at sentencing if the judge
was told P had admitted guilt. As part of the court's
judgment it overturned the preventive detention sentence P received in
February 1999 relating to a second complainant, saying the 1997 crimes had
influenced the judge to impose the open-ended term of preventive detention. Instead it substituted
a sentence of 9½ years for the 1999 charges of rape and unlawful sexual
connection. The court calculated the length of the term so P did not have to
return to prison. |
