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Allegations
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A relative of one of
four men found guilty of pack-raping a woman at Mount Maunganui 16 years ago
said today the jury returned the wrong decision, devastating the lives of
"good people". The unnamed woman is
related to one of two accused men, aged 47 and 53, whose identities remain
suppressed by extensive court orders. The two men were
convicted along with 46-year-old Mt Maunganui businessman Peter Mana McNamara
and 40-year-old Tauranga fireman Warren Graham Hales of abducting and raping
a 20-year-old woman in January 1989. The relative said today
she was "stunned" by the decision of the eight-woman, four-man jury
which was returned after 12 hours of deliberation. "I could tell by
looking at them as came in that they weren't going to deliver great news, but
I just always had an innate belief in the justice system," she told
National Radio. Asked if she thought
the jury "got it wrong", the woman replied: "I absolutely
do". The now 37-year-old victim,
who now lives Australia with her husband and three children, lodged a
complaint with police in April 2004 while on holiday in New Zealand. She told the court the
men lured her into a hut on the pretext of having a lunch date with the
47-year-old, but once there she was bound and raped. The men maintained the
woman orchestrated consensual group sex and denied restraining her. The families of the
four accused were all standing by the men, the relative said. "I have always thought
these men are good people. Nothing has changed about who they are or how we
feel about them." The woman said she had
not questioned or doubted her relative over the incident. "That's not my
role. It's not what I was put on this earth for." The relatives had
compassion for the victim who was "another human being". "To come forward
all those years later, the question it raises is 'at whose instigation and
why?'," she said. The victim was
"very sad" and had something happen in her life that had made the
trial important to her. "I hope she heals but I don't think this is
going to heal her." The trial had been
"a hideous experience" for the families. "It's exposing
parts of someone's lives you'd never normally hear about; their reputation,
how people perceive them. "I'm so shocked at
the amount of people who are prepared to stand up and repeat conversations
they heard from 14 years from someone else, from someone else, and what they
thought of it. "It's an amazing
experience of human nature." The family had also
been shown compassion and support from many friends and family, she said. "My family are
devastated. We're a very, very close family. It just takes one of our special
people out of our lives for a while." The four men were
remanded in custody until August 5 for sentencing. The two men with name
suppression were also found guilty of unlawful sexual violation and the
47-year-old was convicted of a second rape charge. Both men were acquitted of
sexually violating the woman with an object. |
