KEY POINTS:
A pack rape victim has lost her legal challenge to the Parole Board's decision to free one of her attackers.
Peter Mana McNamara was released in January after serving a third of his seven-year sentence for the 1989 attack in Mt Maunganui.
The victim argued it was wrong to release him so early and challenged, in the High Court by way of judicial review, the decision of the Parole Board.
McNamara was jailed on August 5, 2005, after a jury found him guilty of the rape and abduction of the victim, known as Ms A.
After being declined parole three times in 2007, McNamara was released on January 22.
In a decision issued yesterday, Justice Simon France dismissed Ms A's claim, saying the statutory scheme introduced in 2002 established a standard non-parole period of one-third of a sentence.
At the same time, it placed the responsibility on the sentencing judge to consider whether, in the particular case, the harm done or general deterrence concerns required the offender to serve a minimum period in jail longer than one-third.
"A consequential change is that the Parole Board is no longer authorised to have regard to matters such as general deterrence because the sentencing court now does it," the judge said.
The board's function was to consider whether the offender would pose undue risk to the community in the sense of the reoffending risk he presented.
"It follows that the board was correct in Mr McNamara's case to focus upon his reoffending risk.
"All assessments agreed he posed no risk of reoffending."
Justice France said the board had taken the victim's submissions into account to the extent that it was required.
- NZPA
