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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse |
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The victim of a pack
rape in Mt Maunganui 16 years ago says she was left a shell of her former
self and still grieves for the normal life she lost. In a rare move, she
returned to the High Court at Wellington yesterday to read out her victim
impact statement in a room filled with the convicted rapists and their
families and friends. Her voice cracked when
she spoke of abusive relationships she had after the rape, which she would
never have previously tolerated, and how the stress of the court process
could yet sink a business she had spent years building in Australia. A doubting murmur came
from the public gallery as she said she had struggled with the grief the
families of the men were feeling. Peter Mana McNamara,
46, a businessman of Mt Maunganui, was jailed for seven years, and Warren
Graham Hales, 40, a fireman and avocado grower of Tauranga, was jailed for
5-1/2 years. The identities of the two other men – and their past and present
occupations – remain suppressed and they cannot be named for legal reasons at
this time. One man, 47, described
as the ringleader, was jailed for 8-1/2 years. The other, 53, was jailed for
eight years. Factors affecting their sentencing also cannot be published. Justice Ron Young said
the two unnamed men intimidated the victim afterward, ensuring she did not
complain at the time. "Your arrogance, in my view, knew no bounds. "It was a pack
rape in the worst sense. She was, in her words, treated by you like a piece
of meat," the judge said. The four men were
sentenced at levels that applied in 1989 when the maximum penalty for rape
was 14 years' jail, not the 20 years now in force. The woman said
flashbacks of the incident, which happened just days before her 21st birthday
in 1989, meant she lived trapped within a nightmare. Fear of retribution had
led her to live within a cocoon, not daring to open accounts in her own name.
"I have lived without an identity," she said. The guilty verdicts
against the four men did not bring the sense of closure she had hoped for. After reading her
statement, the woman left the court by a secure exit, but then slipped into
the back row of the public gallery to sit with police officers during the
rest of the sentencing. The wives and partners
of the four men also spoke in court of the love and support the men had given
their families, the years of community service each had performed, and how
much they were missed. The father-in-law of
one of the men who cannot be named later handed journalists a paper by
Auckland medical researcher Felicity Goodyear-Smith on the difficulty men
faced defending themselves against sex crimes. One of the women was
already married to her husband at the time of the rape. Her husband and the
other men maintained the victim had agreed to consensual group sex, but
Justice Young said the two unnamed men and McNamara had planned to rape her.
Hales had probably not known that rape was planned but was not strong enough
to say no and succumbed to the pack mentality, the judge said. The men had taken
advantage of the victim's attraction to one of the men, who Justice Young
said was in effect the ringleader. She was lured to a hut on the pretext of
meeting the man for lunch. The jury found the man guilty of abduction, raping
the woman twice, and having unlawful sexual connection with her. The other unnamed man
was found guilty of abduction, rape, and unlawful sexual connection. Hales and McNamara were
each found guilty of rape and abduction. Justice Young accepted
that the woman's hands were bound and a fifth man had taken part, though no
one else was charged. Character references
for each man were given to the judge. McNamara had the most, 79. |
