Delays hurt victims
Woman kept as ‘sex slave’ in hut
A serial rapist who kept one of his victims as a sex slave in a remote bush hut is expected to walk free from court because he has developed mild dementia.
Court delays, including more than two years elapsing since he was first charged with abduction and rape, have also contributed to what one of his victims says is the justice system failing them.
A judge has accepted the man committed what amounted to hundreds of rapes involving four women – some aged as young as 15.
But he is expected to walk free on the charges when he appears in court next month. He is also seeking permanent name suppression.
The dragged-out court process has appalled one of his victims, who was 19 when she was lured to a remote part of the North Island and kept as a sex slave for five months.
She said the public should know who the 79-year-old is and believes his violent sexual history has close parallels to one of New Zealand’s worse sexual offenders, the ‘‘Beast of Blenheim’’, Stewart Murray Wilson.
‘‘I was repeatedly terrorised with threats of tor- ture, forced abortion with wire, starvation, being eaten alive by pigs, death and death to any babies born to me,’’ she told The Dominion Post.
She became pregnant to the man and says he shot a healthy pregnant cow, slit it open and threw its unborn calf to be devoured by semiwild pigs, to demonstrate what he could do to her.
In her statement to police she described the pregnancy ending violently as she was being raped. ‘‘I was cramping, in a lot of discomfort and groaning in pain.
‘‘Clearly I was having a miscarriage. He knew I was pregnant. He knew I was bleeding. Clearly I was in pain, yet he continued to rape me.’’
Being repeatedly raped was one thing, but to violently experience the emotional pain of miscarriage during rape was ‘‘shattering beyond belief’’, she said.
‘‘My ability to protect the life within me was smashed to pieces. It affected me on how I viewed myself as a human being and a mother and added a different dimension to the power he held over me as a rapist.’’
Suppression orders mean Fairfax Media cannot reveal specific details of the woman’s ordeal, including dates and where the offending took place.
The woman was the first to complain to police, in September 2008. Three more victims subsequently came forward.
She wants her own name suppression lifted – and she and the other victims want the man’s name suppression lifted so the public knows what he did.
He was originally charged in December 2009 with four charges or rape, one of unlawful sexual connection and one of abduction. The charges increased in 2010 to 14, including a representative charge covering hundreds of rapes, and further charges were later laid as more complainants were spoken to. So far he has made 27 court appearances and up till the last two was deemed fit to stand trial. Court delays have contributed to a rapist escaping the justice system, one of his victims says.
‘‘In 28 months from 2009 when he was first charged, there have been 27 court hearings involving at least three judges into this. Delays were caused by the defence, other complainants coming forward and judges not making decisions in a realistic time frame.
‘‘An example is that, in spite of the court being alerted that the Crown wanted to join the complaints into one trial in May 2010, it took three more hearings before that
However, his lawyers obtained reports from a psychiatrist and a psychologist saying he has developed mild dementia and is now not fit to be tried.
A judge has accepted the medical opinions after the Crown also obtained reports from a psychiatrist and psychologist.
The woman was 19 when she went to work for the man application could be submitted in September.’’
Records provided by a court worker showed ‘‘another 14 hearings and 15 months then passed before it was heard in December 2011’’.
The decision was reserved till January 30 this year.
‘‘But the decision was not made. It was rescheduled to March 9 but no decision was made. It was extended to March 16 but no decision was made. My complaint is not about any one lawyer or judge. These delays happen because our justice system allows them to happen.’’ in an isolated bush hut with no neighbours and only fourwheel-drive access.
In a 60-page statement she told police 23 years later that the first sexual contact with the man was consensual, though she realised during it that ‘‘what we were doing was not right ... I’d made a mistake. He was old. I shouldn’t have had sex with him.’’
Despite her protests, she became a sex slave as the man moved her into his bedroom, raped her almost daily at will – and told her he would kill anyone who tried to help her.
She said she was powerless, helpless and completely manipulated and feared that because of the remoteness he would easily track her down if she tried to escape.
Because he will not be criminally tried on rape charges, the judge has viewed the evidence and ruled that on the civil law test of the balance of probabilities the man was a rapist.
She was also raped by him in another house where she heard details of a murder being planned and money being exchanged for the hit. He said no-one would know where she was because he would force her to write to her parents saying she had hitchhiked to Auckland.
The man forced her to do heavy labouring work and beat her when she plucked up the courage to ask him to allow her to leave. She eventually escaped using the man’s vehicle when he went bush with a visiting friend.
Go to dompost.co.nz to hear excerpts from the woman’s interview.