Crown seeks preventive detention reports for teen on rape charges
The Crown may ask for preventive detention to be considered for an 18-year-old North Canterbury youth who has admitted two rapes, one involving an 11-year-old girl.
The youth was in custody awaiting sentence in the Christchurch District Court today but the Crown had filed a memorandum seeking a delay for the necessary reports to be prepared.
Name suppression continues until sentencing which is now set for April 30, and the youth will remain in custody while reports by two health assessors – usually a psychiatrist and psychologist – are prepared.
Judge Gary MacAskill agreed to order the reports, which will cover the youth’s risk of committing further qualifying offences.
Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger provided the court with a psychological report that had already been prepared for the defence.
The Crown did not oppose name suppression being continued until the new sentencing session.
Preventive detention sentences mean that offenders – usually sex offenders – can be held in custody until they complete treatment and no longer pose a risk of further offending. It means that offenders can be held in jail indefinitely.
The youth was arrested after a series of incidents on October 13. He pleaded guilty to charges of raping a 17-year-old, threatening to do grievous bodily harm, and abducting, raping, and having unlawful sexual connection with the 11-year-old girl.
The older victim was raped in a car parked near Christchurch Airport. The woman received bruises and abrasions from the struggle and the youth’s face was scratched and bleeding.
A few hours later, the youth approached the 11-year-old girl in a rural North Canterbury playground. He drove her to a remote area where he threatened her with a knife, strangled her, and then sexually violated and raped her.
Afterwards, when she was fearing that she would be killed, the girl jumped out of the moving car, receiving stretches to her face and neck. She had received grazes to her body, arms, and legs and a cut to her thumb from pushing away the youth’s knife. She also received injuries consistent with a sexual assault.
The youth was arrested after crashing his car into a power pole near Loburn at an estimated 122km an hour. The car snapped off the pole and came to a stop about 500m away. The youth was treated at hospital before being arrested.
Category: News
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