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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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Four men were found
guilty of pack-raping a woman in Mount Maunganui 16 years ago by a jury in
the High Court in Wellington yesterday. The men's female
supporters broke down, despite Justice Ron Young's request for them not to
show any reaction while the verdicts were delivered out of consideration for
the jury. The woman whose
complaint in April last year led to the trial was also in court, slipping
into the back row flanked by police and leaving as soon as the 13 verdicts
were read. The jury found Peter
Mana McNamara, 46, of Mount Maunganui, Warren Graham Hales, 40, of Tauranga,
and two men, aged 47 and 53, whose names are still suppressed, guilty of
abducting and raping the woman. The men whose names
were suppressed were acquitted of sexually violating the woman with an
object, but both were convicted of separate sexual violation charges and the
47-year-old was convicted on an extra rape charge. Key details in the case
remain suppressed, but Justice Young refused to continue name suppression for
McNamara and Hales. All four are in custody
pending sentencing on August 5. The woman, now 37, told
the jury she had fancied one of the men and through a go-between arranged
what she thought was lunch with him in January 1989. Instead she was lured to
a hut where her hands were bound and she was raped and subjected to other
indecencies. The men said it was she
who had suggested sex and had been a willing partner in everything that
happened. It was denied she had been restrained or that an object was used
during the incident. The jury had begun
considering its verdicts at noon on Monday and returned with a result a few
minutes before noon yesterday. The trial began on June 20. The judge excused jurors
from serving on another jury for 10 years, in recognition of the burden he
said they had carried. |
