KEY POINTS:
A court's decision to free a teenager accused of raping a girl while previously on bail has been labelled "appalling" by a New Zealand First MP.
He was awaiting sentence for an aggravated burglary when he allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl last weekend.
The 16-year-old was charged with
rape yesterday and today a court bailed him again.
Ron Mark, NZ First's spokesman for law and order, said the justice system was ignoring the needs of victims and needed to take a much harsher line for serial youth offenders.
"When is the Youth Court going to take victims into account instead of worrying about the sensibilities of vicious young mongrels," asked Mr Mark.
"I call aggravated robbery a serious crime, and yet this young man was still dealt with in the Youth Court, and was to be sentenced in the Youth Court rather than being transferred to the District Court."
Police were searching for the Matamata teenager, who had broken his bail conditions, when the alleged rape occurred.
He appeared in the Hamilton Youth Court and has been bailed to reappear in the Morrinsville Youth Court on 17 December for sentencing on the robbery.
Police objected to the granting of his latest bail.
The incident has prompted the Sensible Sentencing Trust to call for the scrapping on new bail laws, less than 10 weeks after they came into effect.
"It's appalling for the victim," trust spokesman Garth McVicar said yesterday. "It's also a disgusting waste of police time and resources, having to chase this offender around when he should not even be allowed out in the community."
On October 1 new laws came into effect making it harder for police to oppose bail.
Under the former system, people awaiting trials or sentencing had to merely pose a "risk" for police to be able to object to their release from custody.
But this had now changed, and the higher threshold of "real and significant risk" had to be taken into account, Mr McVicar said.
Risk centred on the offender's likelihood of interfering with witnesses, absconding, or the chance of reoffending.
However, Mr McVicar said judges could not take in to account past history, which his organisation argued was just as relevant.
Detective Sergeant Rod Carpinter of Waikato police said that on September 9 the Matamata rape-accused attacked another teenager in Matamata, robbing the victim of a number of items.
As part of the youth's bail conditions he was ordered to stay at an address in the township and obey curfews while awaiting sentence for the aggravated robbery.
When officers visited on Saturday the offender was nowhere to be seen.
Mr Carpinter confirmed police were actively looking for the missing 16-year-old when the alleged rape occured.
- with NZPA