Rongopai Pene in the Rotorua District Court. Photo / File
There is yet another delay in justice being served on a man who stalked a woman running through Puarenga Park in Rotorua.
Rongopai Pene, 21, was meant to appear in the Rotorua District Court yesterday for sentencing after Judge Maree MacKenzie last month expressed her dissatisfaction a report on Pene's likelihood of further sexual offending hadn't been done.
Despite her comments, the report was still not done for yesterday's sentencing, forcing the judge to put it off again.
The victim of Pene's offending said she felt "let down again".
"I just can't believe it and feel sorry for any victim who is actually sexually assaulted or worse."
The victim, who has attended all of the court hearings since Pene's arrest in September last year, said she was always physically and mentally drained as she prepared for each court hearing. She said she just wanted it to be over.
Pene pleaded guilty to four charges - accosting a woman on a walking track on September 21, knowing his conduct was likely reasonable to frighten her - and three counts of burglary.
Pene repeatedly followed the woman while she ran through Puarenga Park last year.
She tried to get away from him and eventually scrambled through bushes to make a break on to Te Ngae Rd where she ran to safety at the Sudima Hotel, despite Pene still following her.
Pene was arrested eight days later but it took several court appearances before he entered guilty pleas as there were delays in assessments being done to establish whether Pene was mentally fit to plead to the charges.
When Pene pleaded guilty in December, Judge Phillip Cooper noted the time delays in getting to that point and said he didn't want any further delays when it came to sentencing.
However, he wanted a further psychiatric report on Pene to ascertain if he was at risk of further sexual offending and he purposely put the sentencing off until later in February so there wouldn't be any hold-ups with summer holidays.
When Pene appeared before Judge Maree MacKenzie on February 22, she learned the report hadn't been done and said she was "deeply sorry" to the victim, describing it as "suboptimal".
She said there were "information gaps" in the letter explaining why the report hadn't been done and she ordered that a better explanation be given.
She ordered that forensic services "expedite" the report, saying "people should not be further traumatised because somehow something's gone wrong in the system".
She rescheduled sentencing for March 12 - yesterday - and assured the victim Pene would feel the force of the law.
"No woman should have to put up with what Mr Pene did to you. He stalked you with a sexual intention."
However, the report wasn't done and Judge MacKenzie issued a minute on Wednesday regarding a further delay in the sentencing.
In it, she said she had received correspondence from forensic services advising that the report will not be available by Friday.
"Forensic services explain that difficulties have been encountered due to Mr Pene being in Mt Eden prison during alert level 3 and then was moved to Springhill Prison the night before the interview was to take place via audio-visual link.
"While I accept the recent issues are unavoidable, to date there has been no explanation for the two-month delay as from 10 December 2020 when the report was directed. My request for an explanation remains."
She didn't want to go ahead with sentencing without the report because she was concerned that any risk of sexual recidivism might not be recognised and addressed as part of Pene's sentence.
"I acknowledge that the decision to defer sentencing will be very distressing."
She adjourned sentencing until March 25.