A man sentenced to preventive detention after he tried to rape two women months after being freed from prison, has lost his Court of Appeal bid for a shorter sentence .
Nigel Robert Gately, aged 34, was sentenced in the High Court at Dunedin in October last year after he pleaded
guilty to the abduction and attempted rape of a hitchhiker in Pukerua Bay in February last year and the attempted rape of a woman in Dunedin in June 2000.
The attack on the Dunedin woman happened three months after Gately was released from an eight-year sentence for the rape of a Christchurch prostitute in 1994.
Gately approached the Dunedin woman, who was a stranger to him, as she walked home at 4.15 am on June 18. He was intoxicated.
He pushed her and punched her to the ground. While hitting her, he said he was going to kill her and have sex with her. He ripped off some of her clothing, but she fought back and managed to escape. She suffered severe emotional trauma.
Gately then fled to Wellington, living under an assumed name.
On February 5 last year, after Gately had used a considerable amount of cannabis, he picked up a hitchhiker by Wellington train station.
After travelling to Pukerua Bay, the woman asked to be let out of the car, but Gately refused to stop. He drove to an isolated spot where he reached over to her saying he wanted to have sex.
When she resisted he punched her on the mouth, and when she began to pray out aloud, he drove off. The woman pulled on the handbrake and jumped from the moving car .
She suffered swelling to her face and grazes from her leap from the car. Like the other victim, she was severely traumatised by her ordeal.
Gately's lawyer, Anne Stevens, told yesterday's hearing that thesentencing judge did not assess the risk of Gately's reoffending if he received pre-release counselling for alcohol and drug problems as well as his attitude towards women and sex.
Gately had never been given a formal warning that if he reoffended a sentence of preventive detention would be imposed.
The written judgment, issued by Justice Andrew Tipping after yesterday's hearing, said psychiatric reports found there was a high risk of Gately reoffending sexually.
Despite the plea for another chance, the justices said they had an overall responsibility to society.
- NZPA
Sex attacks sentence appeal dismissed
A man sentenced to preventive detention after he tried to rape two women months after being freed from prison, has lost his Court of Appeal bid for a shorter sentence .
Nigel Robert Gately, aged 34, was sentenced in the High Court at Dunedin in October last year after he pleaded
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