Stepdad wanted to hit rapist more

The stepfather accused of assaulting his stepdaughter’s rapist has told a court he listened to the teenager sobbing the night before the alleged beating.

The man began testifying in Wellington District Court yesterday. He told the jury that he had earlier beaten up Jason Haward for raping the 15-year-old in Paraparaumu last year.

On the day of the rape – for which Haward has been jailed – the man said he had heard a commotion outside his partner’s house. He found his stepdaughter naked, crouched down by a car, and Haward standing over her.

He realised the girl had been attacked. ‘‘I lost the plot ... and started hitting him.’’

He told the jury he hit him about 10 times, knocked him to the ground, picked him up and kept hitting him. As he was calming down, his partner came out of the house and said Haward had raped the girl. She knocked Haward down and kicked him in the head.

Haward was claiming the girl had robbed him, and he was trying to find his wallet.

The stepfather said he gave a statement to police and was told that, under the circumstances, the beating was what any reasonable person would do. He was not charged with that assault.

On the night before the alleged second assault, he told the jury that all he could hear was his stepdaughter sobbing.

He tried to get hold of police to pass on information, but no-one answered the intercom at Kapiti police station, and the family could not reach anyone on the phone.

As he and his partner were driving down Kapiti Rd, they saw Haward. The man said he hit Haward after he took a swing at him first. ‘‘I did not intend to injure him, just to keep him there till police arrived, and I figured he would be locked up.’’

He was frustrated and angry at what he saw as an inept police investigation. No medical examination of his stepdaughter had been arranged, and he was unable

"I lost the plot ... and started hitting him." Man accused of assaulting his stepdaughter's rapist

to contact anyone.

He told the jury he believed Haward’s arrest and conviction was due to his actions, rather than anything done by the police.

He was worried Haward would bolt, and kept telling others who were trying to separate them not to let Haward go.

Crown prosecutor Adele Garrick asked him if he knew he had no right to restrain Haward. ‘‘I didn’t really care,’’ he said. ‘‘I presume any father put into that situation would react in the same way.

‘‘I will not accept that what I did was wrong for one split second.’’

Earlier, Constable Benjamin Reed said he had been called to the scene last April 23 and had taken the stepfather back to the station. He asked him what he had done.

He told the jury the man said he had hit Haward eight or nine times. ‘‘He said it wasn’t enough.’’

The man also said he tried to kick Haward in the testicles because he raped his stepdaughter.

Witness John Batty, who helped separate the two men, said he noticed Haward had a black eye and was bleeding from his lip. The man who was the aggressor kept up a tirade of: ‘‘It was you, you raped her, I’m going to get you.’’

Haward denied the claims, and Batty said he was saying something like: ‘‘It wasn’t me, you don’t know what you’re talking about.‘‘

In her closing address, Garrick said the jurors may feel sympathy or anger for Haward but they had to put emotions aside. ‘‘This is about what the defendant did, not what Haward did.’’

Defence lawyer Peter Foster said the jury should act in the same fair-minded way they would expect to if one of their own family was charged as his client was. It was the defence case that the man had no intention to injure Haward, only to hand him over to police.

The jury is expected to begin deliberating on Monday.