Convicted rapist’s jailhouse confession

A child rapist has made a jailhouse confession to more previously unknown offending.

In September 2010, Robin Peter Abraham was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment after he admitted two charges of sexual violation by rape against a girl aged 10 to 12 at the time. His offending indirectly led to a top cop having to apologise to the girl’s family after saying she was a ‘‘willing party’’ to the abuse.

He was up for release in June, but a psychologist’s report for the Parole Board revealed he’d admitted previously undetected offending. This happened when Abraham, now in his mid 50s, was in his 20s and the offending was against a young man. No further details about the offending were available in the Parole Board report released to the Manawatu Standard.

Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan said police were not aware of the recent parole report and there was no investigation under way into Abraham’s admissions.

Abraham, a former bakery dispatch operator, began sexually grooming the child he was convicted of raping when she was 10. The offending took place between early 2008 and early 2010. Even after he was jailed, Abraham’s offending caused ripples.

Then Central District Police commander Superintendent Russell Gibson was subject to an employment investigation in 2013 after he described the girl as a ‘‘willing party’’ to the sexual abuse.

Gibson made the comments in a 2012 letter to Abraham’s wife, Michelle, saying: ‘‘There is evidence contained within the file which clearly establishes that the young girl was a willing party to these instances, but as I explained to you, this is irrelevant in terms of the charge.’’ At the time, Gibson said he was ‘‘deeply embarrassed by the letter’’ and apologised to the girl’s family.

This letter was not the first to upset the young victim. While on remand awaiting sentence in Manawatu Prison in 2010, Abraham wrote to her family, saying he never meant any harm. At the time, the girl’s mother said the letter had re-victimised her daughter because Abraham’s words were ‘‘patronising’’, added to the family’s pain and made it more difficult to move on.

The girl’s victim impact statement to the court said: ‘‘Before I turned 10, my life was perfect and after I turned 10 and Robin started doing things to me, my life was turned upside down.’’

The offending began with inappropriate touching and indecent acts before progressing to sexual intercourse at remote locations, such as a vacant section and an abandoned campervan.

The Parole Board’s report says Abraham has a lack of insight into what he did and a tendency to blame others. He was now in a child-sex offender treatment programme.

Abraham had initially appealed against his conviction, but abandoned the appeal and pursued an appeal against his sentence, which was dismissed. Parole was declined.