You wrecked my life, rapists told

Two Whangarei men who raped a woman they offered to give a lift home have been sentenced to jail terms of between seven years eight months and nine years in an attack that "ruined" the young woman's life.

Maanu Johnstone, 34, and Maui Morehu Anaru, 26, appeared for sentence in the Whangarei District Court yesterday after they raped a woman near the old Whangarei railway station on July 1, 2009.

Johnstone was sentenced to nine years' jail for rape and being a party to rape while Anaru got seven years eight months imprisonment for rape, two charges of sexual violation and one of being a party to rape. Anaru pleaded guilty to his charges on the day their trial was to start, while Johnstone pleaded guilty on the second day of the trial.

The victim and her mother read victim impact statements to the court, with the violated woman, who was 19 at the time, saying the rapes had ruined her life.

The woman said she became suicidal and self-harming and had to be put on around-the-clock suicide watch by her family. She rarely slept well, with "terrible nightmares" constantly waking her.

"I thought I was going to die (that night), I thought they were going to kill me," she said.

The woman became pregnant last year, against the odds given a medical condition, but miscarried and blamed the trauma of the rape for that. She said she also believed the rape may have been part of a gang initiation ceremony as she knew Johnstone had gang links.

In mitigation, Lucy Postlewaight, for Johnstone, and John Watson, for Anaru, submitted that the guilty pleas had spared the woman from having to go through the whole trial and be cross-examined. Anaru had also been prepared to give evidence against Johnstone at his trial. Johnstone, meanwhile, had mistakenly believed there was some form of consent from the woman, but pleaded guilty when he realised that was not the case.

Judge John McDonald said the woman had been drinking the night she was raped and had accepted a lift home from Anaru and Johnstone, who was driving, when she met them at the Mobil Service Station on Walton St.

The pair took her to the old railway station and raped her, while Anaru also sexually violated her twice.

Judge McDonald said the men violated the woman for their own sexual gratification and it had affected the woman appallingly.

"It's all but destroyed her life," the judge said.

"There are some in our community who wold say she brought this upon herself by going into town and drinking. Anybody who thinks like that should be ashamed of themselves. A civilised society, that we claim to live in, is supposed to protect all of its citizens, not through the use of the police only, but with each person in that society helping and protecting others. That's what she thought (Johnstone and Anaru) were doing that night (when they offered her a life home).

Judge McDonald said a starting point for the pair was 11 years' jail, but he gave them credit for their guilty pleas and also gave Anaru extra credit for being prepared to give evidence against Johnstone in the trial.