Suspended sentence for girl over role in attempted rape

A 16-year-old described as the lookout during a prolonged group attack on two Te Puke 13-year-olds was given an 18-month suspended jail term yesterday.

In the Tauranga District Court, Judge Ian Thomas also ordered 18 months' supervision for the girl who, he said, had experienced a number of difficulties in her life, including mental health problems.

She had appeared before the Youth Court on two charges of kidnapping, one of aggravated robbery and one of assault with a weapon.

Judge Thomas said the teenager was being sentenced in the district court because of the gravity of the charges and the opportunity of getting more long-term therapeutic and rehabilitation help.

Her name has been suppressed.

Last month, a 14-year-old female associate who faced additional counts of sexual violation and attempted rape was sent to jail for three years.

The charges arose from an incident at Jamieson Oval in Te Puke last November 11.

Judge Thomas said the counts faced by the 16-year-old indicated she had nothing to do with the sexual side of the attack on the victims, a boy and girl.

Tony Balme, who appeared for the defendant, said her mental stability must be addressed in the supervision conditions.

She seemed to offer differing accounts of the incident each time she was asked about it.

The teenager found it difficult to come to terms with what happened that day and was traumatised by her involvement.

Mr Balme said the girl claimed she was assigned as the lookout but understood that made her a party to what was going on.

She acknowledged putting a stick to the throat of one of the victims but seemed to have distanced herself from the worst of the offending, involving gross sexual indignities forced on the two young victims.

Crown prosecutor Gregory Hollister-Jones said the defendant was the principal party in the assault with a weapon (a broom handle).

She had also stolen sweets from one of the victims.

Judge Thomas told the 16-year-old: "You are obviously a person who follows, not leads."

Accepting that the girl might have been coerced and threatened, the judge said she needed a great deal of help to prevent anything similar happening again.

Had she been an adult she "would have merited a substantial prison sentence".