Jail for group attackers

CRIME SCENE: A flat on Lyndon Rd Hastings where a teen was subjected to a group attack last year.

A young woman was left "emotionally scarred" after being stripped naked, pinned to the ground, beaten and violated with bottles, a court heard.
You wouldn't treat an animal like that, she said in a victim impact statement. Yet it happened to her by four people she thought were her friends.
All four appeared in the Napier District Court today and were sentenced to jail for their part in the attack.
Hannah Sims, 21, who was the ring-leader of the four-hour-long assault was given the longest sentence of eight years imprisonment.
During the attack last July, a 17-year-old teenager, was punched and kicked. She had water thrown on her, was spat on, had her hair cut and was so traumatised by the sexual assault she defecated.
Sims last month pleaded guilty to nine charges, two charges of indecent assault, sexual violation and assault with a weapon as well as a charge of injuring with intent to injure, threatening to kill and unlawfully detaining a person.
Her co-accused Nakita Roper, 17, Vaughan Olsen, 21 and Joshua Kerr, 20, pleaded guilty to some lesser charges but defended some charges in a trial last month.
Roper was found guilty of two charges of being party to the violation of the girl with whom she was friends at the time. She was sentenced to seven years three months imprisonment.
The jury found the young men not guilty of the two most serious charges.
However, they found Kerr guilty of detaining the girl and indecent assault by removing her clothes. Olsen was found guilty of encouraging Kerr to assault the victim by hitting her on the backside with a spatula.
Kerr was sentenced to five years imprisonment while Olsen was sentenced to four years nine months.
Judge Geoff Rea said it was was appalling criminal behaviour that went far beyond bullying or playfulness. The victim was "beaten and humiliated" while others cheered on the attack.
Film footage of the girl slumped against a fence showing Sims kick the girl in the face struck a chord with Judge Rea. That was bad enough, he said, but what made it worse was Kerr and Olsen acting as cheerleaders.
Judge Rea said Sims and Roper were active participants who played to their audience.
The court heard that the girl's mother felt guilty for what happened to her daughter.
"She shouldn't have any guilt," Judge Rea said.
"The guilt lies with you," he told Sims, Roper, Kerr and Olsen.
"Not only did you not protect your friend, you attacked your friend."
Sims, Kerr and Olsen have been issued a first strike under the three strikes legislation for violent offending. Roper does not come under the legislation as she is just 17.