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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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A 16-year ordeal for the
victim of a gang rape ended yesterday when a jury found four men guilty of
luring her to a beach hut and taking turns to violate her. All four were held in
custody and will be sentenced on August 5. The woman, who was 20
at the time, made a complaint to police last year and returned from Australia
to give evidence. The complainant told
the High Court at Wellington intimidation by one of the five men she said
raped her was an important reason she did not make a complaint at the time. The man, who was a
public servant, turned up at her work in the days after and tracked her down
at the motel where she was staying during a temporary work posting. "I felt it was
intimidation. He came to remind me ... it wouldn't be worth telling that he
raped me." She believed he
organised a colleague to telephone her motel when he turned up, to make it
seem as though he was invited. "It increased my
fear of him. He hadn't indicated he was going to hurt me in anyway but his
intimidation tactics were huge." She said that she had
feared for her safety since the rapes and had not been on an electoral roll
or had bills in her name for fear of being traced. The woman, who is now
37, said that in January 1989 she was lured to a beach hut on the pretext of having
lunch with one of the men, and was raped there. The men had pleaded not
guilty and said she was a willing partner in a group sex session. Key details in the
trial have been suppressed. Two of the men were
acquitted of charges of sexual violation with an object. The verdicts came at
the end of 12 hours of deliberation, following a 2 1/2-week trial. They were returned just
before midday by the jury of eight women and four men. Name suppression was
lifted on two of the men. Peter Mana McNamara, 46,
a Mt Maunganui business manager, and Warren Graham Hales, 40, a Papamoa
firefighter, were both found guilty of abduction and rape, and did not face
any other charges. The names of the other
two men remain suppressed. They were found guilty of rape, abduction and
unlawful sexual connection and one of them found guilty of an extra rape
charge. All four men were
remanded in custody for pre-sentencing reports and sentencing on August 5. There were screams and
sobs from relatives in the public gallery as the verdicts were read out. One of the men in the
dock shook his head slowly in apparent disbelief, and another visibly
flinched - but for the most part, all four maintained a stoic demeanour. Dismissing the jury,
Justice Ronald Young thanked its members for their "great courage and
care" over the trial, which came under intense media scrutiny. "The fact is that
the criminal justice system could not continue to operate unless good people
like yourselves were prepared to come and do their duty," he said. He excused them from
being called up for jury duty for 10 years in recognition of the particularly
stressful nature of the trial. The jurors, many
looking wan and drawn after 12 hours of deliberation over two days, left the
room without a backward glance at the four men. While the judge
accepted there were compelling reasons for continuing name suppression for
two of the convicted men, he discounted requests from defence lawyers for
McNamara and Hales that their names not be published. As they filed out to
the cells, one of the convicted men was seen to gesture and mouth something
through the glass partition to two women who were crying uncontrollably. Although Justice Young
had made a special plea to the public before the verdicts not to show emotion
out of consideration for the jury, women continued to wail while the
courtroom emptied. The families and
supporters left court immediately without comment while media gathered in
wait outside |
