Sex attack earns 4.5 year term

A 45-year-old Hastings man was yesterday sentenced to 4 1/2 years jail for sexually violating a teenage girl on the last day of parole from a sentence for a previous rape.
Tonto Tuhoe, a farmer, was appearing for sentence in the High Court in Napier, more than four months after being found guilty by a jury in the Napier District Court.
He had pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexually violating the 17-year-old complainant, sneaking into her bedroom and performing oral sex on her as she slept beside her boyfriend, while Tuhoe was supposed to be sleeping on a couch in another room after a night out with the couple.
When she awoke, he stopped, and left the house when told to.
The trial was held in November, and the lengthy remand in custody came after a District Court judge declined jurisdiction in sentencing because of the possibility of preventive detention which could be imposed only by the High Court.
Justice Lester Chisholm declined that application lodged by Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly, warning that if Tuhoe ever came back to court for similar offending he could expect to stay in jail for the rest of his life.
He said he had taken that decision only because he believed risks of Tuhoe reoffending could be alleviated by medication he was taking and his remorseful decision to undertake treatment while in jail.
He decided Tuhoe should serve a minimum non-parole term of 36 months.
Extensive reports compiled during the remand were ordered to be provided to prison authorities to assist in Tuhoe's rehabilitation.
In 2001, Tuhoe, in a stable marriage, with four children and with no history of violent offending, was sentenced to five years' jail for what defence counsel Trent Petherick said yesterday had been a revenge rape.
Tuhoe believed the woman in that incident was unconcerned about a rape a man she knew allegedly committed on another woman.
Justice Chisholm noted the Judge in that case took into account Tuhoe's depression about his previous marriage break-up noting it appeared to spark an alcohol problem.
The Judge said one report noted Tuhoe had said he was glad he had been found guilty of the latest offence.
Mrs Rielly, who sought a sentence of "up around five years," said the victim had left town as a result of the trauma suffered by both the nature of the offence and the breach of trust shown by a man allowed to stay the night in her home.