15-year-old gets five years for rape

Judge Robert Spear told the offender he needed to accept his crime or risk becoming a ticking "time bomb". Photo / Herald on Sunday

A 15-year-old Waikato boy has been sent to prison for five years for rape and told by the judge to accept his offending or risk becoming a ticking "time bomb".

The teenager appeared for sentencing yesterday in Hamilton District Court after earlier being found guilty by a jury.

Judge Robert Spear said unless he accepted his crime and sought counselling, he would "come out of prison a time bomb waiting to go off".

The court was told that on July 27 last year the boy, then aged 14, and the complainant, then aged 16, had been at a house party in Nawton, Hamilton, when the girl decided to walk home.

The defendant followed the complainant into a nearby park where he forced her to the ground and raped her.

He denied the offending, saying the pair had consensual sex.

Crown prosecutor Philip Crayton said the boy wanted to have sex in an effort to improve his status among friends and knew the complainant would be vulnerable in the park at night.

At the trial, the teenager said he had been teased at school for being a virgin and was frustrated at jibes he was "frigid", the Waikato Times reported.

Mr Crayton said the defendant knew his actions were "seriously wrong" but showed no remorse and continued to deny the offending.

Judge Spear said the case was a tragedy for the victim, the attacker, and their families.

"This was a shocking crime that he must regret for the rest of his life," he said.

- NZPA