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Victims of past rapes
may be encouraged to come forward following the conviction yesterday of four
men for the gang-rape of a 20-year-old woman at Mount Maunganui 16 years ago,
a sexual abuse expert says. Auckland Sexual Abuse
Health Foundation spokeswoman Caroline Day said today other victims of
historical sexual abuse may have memories brought up by the case that has
been played out for two weeks at the High Court in Wellington. "I think women
that may have buried that experience or partly forgotten about it, can be
reconnected with it and have a desire to come forward and do something about
it," she told National Radio. The jury of eight women
and four men yesterday found the four men guilty of gang-rape and abducting
the woman after a day's deliberation. Peter Mana McNamara, a
46-year-old Mt Maunganui businessman, Warren Graham Hales, a 40-year-old fireman
of Papamoa and two men aged 47 and 53 – whose names are still suppressed –
were remanded in custody for sentencing on August 5. The two unnamed men
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. The woman, 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 had maintained
the woman had orchestrated consensual group sex and denied restraining her. With no DNA evidence,
the trial came down to the victim's word against that of the accused. Historical rape cases
raised issues for defence lawyers, New Zealand Bar Association president
Peter Winter said today. "It raises issues
of memory, and reliability of memory," he told National Radio. "It raises issues
of what witnesses might have been available at the time to assist the defence
case but are no longer available because they have disappeared or possibly
died." Whether the accused was
capable of remembering events or healthy enough to stand trial also had to be
considered, Mr Winter said. |
