Terror as rapist bids for freedom

 

A man who raped a teenage schoolgirl while on bail for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old could be freed early next year and released to his parents' home in Katikati after serving a third of his nine-year sentence.

Antony Mark Smolenski wants to be freed to the care of his parents despite being denied parole in April and not having completed a treatment programme.

Smolenski's victims are fighting to keep him behind bars and have made an impassioned plea to the Parole Board as they believe he will offend again.

"It scares me a lot," the woman he raped told The Dominion Post from her home in Tauranga.

"When I think about him getting out, I just start panicking and freaking out, just climbing the walls.

"I'm just not coping with it at all _ inside I am just screaming."

Smolenski's mother _ who says her son believes he is not guilty _ said she and her husband had agreed to look after him and drive him to a psychologist once a week.

Smolenski's father refused to comment this morning when contacted by the Bay of Plenty Times, referring our reporter to his lawyer, Eb Leary.

Smolenski is one of a dwindling number of offenders still eligible for home detention after a third of their sentence.

As of October 1, home detention became a sentence in its own right, able to be doled out by judges at sentencing but ceased to be an option for prisoners already behind bars unless it was part of their parole conditions. Smolenski, a former port worker from Katikati, became eligible just before the cutoff.

He was 24 when on January 25, 2004, he and friend Dhruva Das Reid, lured two girls, aged 17 and 16, to a location that was subsequently suppressed by court order.

The two men had been drinking.

Smolenski raped one girl while holding a knife to her throat and indecently assaulted the other, while Reid stood back.

The Bay Times reported at the time that Reid was sentenced to 250 hours' community work on one charge of indecently assaulting the rape victim.

Smolenski was convicted of rape, threatening to kill and two charges of indecent assault. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison in December 2004 but with no minimum non-parole period.

That enabled him to apply for parole as soon as the option became available in April but a three-person board rejected his application.

One reason was that he had been given no treatment.

He is now applying to serve out the remainder of his sentence by way of home detention.

"He is a predator," said the mother of one of the girls he indecently assaulted.

"He is a threat. He was on bail and he did something really heinous to someone, and he showed a blatant disregard for the rules then.

"Why are we the ones having to argue about keeping him in? It's just a constant torment."

At the time of the rape, he was awaiting sentence for indecent assault.

He lured a girl by claiming he wanted to hire her to fold pamphlets, promising to pay $15 an hour.

He picked her up from school and drove her to a river, where he forced himself on her. She escaped after kicking him in the throat.

Smolenski has never admitted guilt or expressed remorse.

At his Parole Board hearing in April, he denied any rape or indecent assault took place.

Mr Leary expected the board's decision to be delayed because he was awaiting psychological reports.

They were needed to allow the board to make a fair decision, he said.

Mr Leary told the Bay of Plenty Times that a parole board hearing could be expected "within months".

A Parole Board spokeswoman said the board's main focus was the safety of the community.

Since 2002, 70 per cent of home detention applications heard by the board had been turned down.

Sensible Sentencing Trust founder Garth McVicar told the Bay Times he was horrified by the possibility that Smolenski could soon be released.

He said people who committed crimes should complete the sentence handed to them in a court.

with David Dunham