KEY POINTS:
A rapist who was driven to the police station by his victim after he fell asleep in the car has been jailed for nine-and-a-half years.
Vipul Romik Sharma, who was supported in court by his wife, showed little emotion as he was sentenced in the Auckland District Court yesterday on two counts of rape and one of kidnapping.
The attack happened in February 2006 after the then 20-year-old victim, who can not be identified for legal reasons, met Sharma and an associate of his - Sukhvinder Singh - in an Auckland bar.
She was abducted and later raped by both men. After the attack, Singh was dropped home and Sharma, who was then 19, drove back towards the city along the Southern Motorway. He became sleepy and started weaving across the road.
The victim convinced her rapist to let her to drive and he quickly fell asleep in the passenger seat. She then drove straight to the Auckland police station, where Sharma tried to say he was a victim and had been robbed.
Late last year, a jury rejected Sharma's story that Singh had threatened to kill him if he didn't have sex with the victim.
Judge Phil Gittos said the victim was not only devastated by the attack but left with an infection as a result of what happened. "It was an added shameful and disagreeable consequence of this offending."
Judge Gittos said the fact the woman was taken against her will was an aggravating feature. He rejected Sharma's claims that he played a lesser role and acted under duress from Singh, saying "whether he was the leader and you were the follower really doesn't make any difference".
A pre-sentencing report said that Sharma was a risk to the community and had no empathy for his victim.
At the sentencing, Judge Gittos said he took into account Sharma's age, lack of previous convictions and the fact he would have no family support in prison as his family were due to return to Fiji shortly.
Sharma was also sentenced to a further three months for dangerous driving and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Those charges followed an incident in which he crashed his car in 2007 but had his wife tell police she was driving.
Sharma's rape victim was not in court but said she was "very satisfied" with the sentence.
"Good job," she told the Herald. "I'm glad that he is where he is because that means it's a bit safer out there. I'm very pleased with that sentence."
The woman said she had now moved on with her life. "I've just got back on with life and started new things - a new job, a new partner and everything like that. It's been OK, it's just one of those things that I hope doesn't happen to anyone else."
Singh pleaded guilty to his role soon after the rape and is serving a seven-and-a-half-year term in Wanganui Prison.
