A man who raped a teenage girl in a home invasion less than two weeks after being freed from prison has had a sentence of preventive detention overturned.
Clinton Jacob Wilson, 26, was released on parole on June 27 last year to live in a small North Island town. He committed the offences on July 8.
The 13-year-old victim and her younger brother, who saw part of the attack, identified Wilson, whom they knew as Rat.
When he learned the girl's father wanted to confront him, he made a pre-emptive attack and hit the man with a rake so hard the handle broke.
A jury in the High Court at Hamilton found Wilson guilty of rape, indecent assault, injuring with intent to injure and assault with a weapon.
Wilson appealed against his conviction and the sentence of preventive detention (an indefinite jail term).
In a judgment released yesterday, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal against conviction but allowed the sentence appeal, and instead sentenced Wilson to 14 years in jail.
Wilson had previous convictions for violence, but not for sexual offences.
The court said preventive detention seemed to have been imposed because a different section of the public was now exposed to risk, but that was an unconvincing reason.
The sexual offences were not of a type that showed a danger justifying a sentence of preventive detention.
Also, a psychiatrist thought Wilson had qualities that should reduce the risk of reoffending if he made "lifestyle changes".
- NZPA
Rapist's jail term reduced
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