Victim offers rapist gift of hopeful advice
A rape victim gave her attacker a heartfelt gift and a few words of advice before he was sentenced to preventive detention.
Courtney Curry, 26, raped the woman in Hastings early on the morning of April 29. His victim had been with a friend listening to a band play at a bar in the city centre. At 1am, she left the venue.
It was raining heavily so she sought shelter under shop eaves. Her next recollection was ‘‘coming to’’ in the back seat of a vehicle as a man, later revealed to be Curry, was raping her.
The woman managed to take Curry’s iPhone as he drove her home, and police were able to locate him through the phone.
Curry pleaded guilty to a charge of rape and was sentenced by Justice Karen Clark in the High Court at Napier on Wednesday. The woman told Stuff she had been preparing for months to deliver her victim impact statement to court.
‘‘I didn’t know if I’d be able to read it out until the moment and, as much as fear filled me, I also felt like this was the only way I was going to have my time in the ring with him to stand up for myself and take back me.’’
Her statement began ‘‘My gift to Mr Curry . . .’’ It covered the profound effect the rape had had on her life, before addressing him directly.
‘‘Today Courtney, my gift to you is not of forgiveness but is of time and choice. The gift of time to educate and develop yourself and come out of incarceration a better, changed man, time to learn healthy behaviours and develop your mentality to make better choices so that when you have your chance at life in society you will have these gifts to make the right choices. That you will come out and be an asset to society and a role-model to your whanau. That you will have the capacity to give and receive unconditional love and show how to respect it and extend this to strangers also. The choice is yours. That’s my gift.
‘‘For me, this would truly mean that I could live in acceptance of your violations on me. I would like to say forgiveness but right now I feel this is too generous of me.
‘‘Hopefully by then, our history will have empowered me but for today it is one step at a time. Life is about choices, young man. I beg you to make the right choices. That is my gift to you.
‘‘Should you come out unchanged, unremorseful and continue your life as you were prior, I will be really unforgiving and personally insulted.
‘‘Please accept my gifts and should you use it genuinely, you will have an amazing life.’’
Justice Karen Clark sentenced Curry to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of five years.
The woman told Stuff she had mixed feelings about the sentence.
‘‘I heard his background and upbringing and his previous offences and victims. I had moments of wanting to hug the abused child in him and moments of hurt anger for the sex offender he has become.
‘‘But I have had my world turned upside down and, unfortunately, no matter how much time he spends in incarceration, it has no influence or impact on my day-to-day wellbeing.
‘‘The consequences of his actions for me means I have to serve a life sentence of living with his violation and it’s up to me and me alone how I manage it.’’