Eagle avoids record penalty

Trevor Eagle came very close to receiving the longest non-parole jail sentence ever imposed in Hawke's Bay as a judge yesterday rejected a plea for the maximum penalty for his abduction and rape of a Napier woman on January 17.
Only the 11 guilty pleas he made in the Napier District Court eight days later saved him from a minimum non-parole sentence of 18 years - a year more than the 17-year sentence given to a man who abducted, raped and murdered a female jogger near Hastings in 2001.
In the High Court in Napier yesterday Justice Forrest Miller said the early admissions were the only mitigating factor in Eagle's favour.
On January 25 Eagle pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual violation by rape, six other charges of sexual violation, and one charge each of abduction with intention to sexually violate the woman, aggravated burglary, and unlawfully taking her car.
Justice Miller stated the outcome in the opening stages of a 23-minute judgement of Eagle's one hour and 15 minutes in court by saying that among information available, including reports from a two psychiatric sources, there was nothing to say Eagle was "willing or able to address the causes of the offending".
"You will be sentenced to preventive detention with a minimum sentence of 10 years," the judge said.
Crown prosecutor Jonathan Krebs, defence counsel Derek Quilliam and the judge acknowledged Eagle did not have a history of sexual or violent offences, but Mr Krebs urged the judge not to consider that as a mitigating factor.
Suggesting the maximum sexual violation penalty of 20 years be imposed as the minimum non-parole sentence, he said: "It is difficult to conceive of how a case could be worse than this, without death occurring. How could it be worse?"
He said not imposing the maximum sentence would defeat the purpose of the Sentencing Act.
Mr Quilliam did not argue against the sentence of preventive detention, saying: "It has to be said the case is a series of distressing and chilling events that are hard to believe."
"He (Eagle) professes profound regret and remorse for his actions and apologises with every fibre of his body."
Mr Krebs said there were at least seven incidents of rape in the woman's nine-hour ordeal with Eagle in the Glen Falls Forest, off the Napier-Taupo highway, and numerous forms of sexual penetration and other sexual acts demanded of the woman.
Having already stored supplies in the area, Eagle waited till the woman's fiancé left for work, and then forced his way into their house before 6am, abducted her at knifepoint and took her in her car to the forest where the offences continued until nightfall.
She escaped after Eagle fell asleep and spent the night in the open, naked.
After Eagle left the area, she walked for three hours on gravel roads to wave down a truck driver. Eagle was apprehended with her vehicle in Bay of Plenty the following day.
Justice Miller said the woman "believed with good reason that you were about to kill her", and "the prosecution is of the firm view that if she had not escaped you would have killed her".
The judge said Eagle came from a family where little affection was displayed by anyone but his older sister.
He first got into trouble with the police at age 12 and was taken into social welfare care soon after that.
He used LSD, cannabis, alcohol and methamphetamine, and had declined an offer of counselling in 1988.
Justice Miller said Eagle had a pre-existent fantasy of a sexual nature where cruelty to the victim played an important part. He said Eagle suffered from severe mental illness and had persecutionary delusions.
"The risk of recidivism is very high ... There is no evidence that you are able or willing to reform," Justice Miller said.
Tearful members of Eagle's family abused media outside the court as they were followed to their cars.
Justice Miller highlighted concerns about media intrusion into the life of the victim who told him that about 5.30am on Thursday there was a knock at the door by a "stranger" she believed to be an Auckland-based TV3 journalist. Justice Miller said he hoped media would in future respect her privacy and not approach her again.