Pair jailed for 'degrading' rape

GUILTY: Amritpal Sidhu (left) was jailed for eight years and Gurpinder Brar for seven in the Rotorua District Court yesterday. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER 130913SP3

Two men were "on the lookout" for women when they picked up and raped their vulnerable victim, a court was told.

Gurpinder Singh Brar, 25, and Amritpal Singh Sidhu, 21, were sentenced in the Rotorua District Court yesterday after a jury in July found them guilty of raping a 38-year-old woman in Rotorua.

Sidhu was jailed for eight years while Brar - ruled by Judge Chris McGuire as slightly less culpable because of language problems - was jailed for seven years.

The men picked up the woman as she walked along Ranolf St in the early hours of October 16, 2011. They took her to an isolated spot outside the city where first Sidhu then Brar raped her. Afterwards they dropped her on Sophia St where she sought help from a resident.

The pair initially denied any contact with her. When their DNA was found on her underwear they admitted sexual intercourse but claimed it was consensual. Their first trial last year ended with a hung jury before the second jury found them guilty.

In sentencing, Judge McGuire said Sidhu still maintained his innocence and was considered an "untreated and unrepentant sexual offender". He said Sidhu told a probation officer the victim had flirted with him.

"Given [the] evidence in court about that night I cannot completely rule that out as a possibility. The fact remains that if at the time sexual intercourse occurred a complainant is not consenting and you have no reasonable grounds to believe she is, you commit rape."

The judge said Brar, who needed a Punjabi translator during the court process, was more likely to have held an unreasonable belief the victim had consented. Brar had taken his cues from Sidhu during the rape and had told a probation officer Sidhu informed him the woman had consented.

Judge McGuire said the woman's victim impact statement was "harrowing".

"You preyed upon a vulnerable, intoxicated person in the early hours of the morning," he told the men. "Quite plainly you were on the lookout to see if you could pick up a woman or women ... and you did that."

Brar's wife was in court to support him while the judge was handed a letter from Sidhu's wife, with whom he has a 1-year-old son.

Crown prosecutor Chris Macklin had argued for a sentence of 10 to 11 years' jail for both men, calling the rape "calculated" and "degrading".