High Court rejects name suppression appeal from Wellington rapist

By Lauren Crimp of RNZ

A convicted rapist at the centre of a long-running Wellington rape case has lost another bid for name suppression - but his name will be kept secret until the end of June to allow him to appeal that decision.

The case, which at one point involved multiple complainants, ended last year after a second trial - with one man being sentenced to three years and nine months in jail on a single charge.

At his sentencing in the Wellington District Court in January, Judge Peter Hobbs refused permanent name suppression - but the man appealed that in the High Court in Wellington in April.

However, in her judgement released on Wednesday, Justice Helen McQueen also refused the suppression.

The police investigation - codenamed Operation Emerald - was triggered by dozens of allegations of sexual assault that surfaced on social media.

At the High Court hearing, the man’s lawyer Sam Campbell argued the social media “firestorm”, which included death threats, would restart if name suppression was lifted.

The man’s name was “highly identifiable”, he had no support from friends or family, and he was still young, with prospects for rehabilitation if his name was kept secret, Campbell added.

But the man’s circumstances did not reach the threshold for “extreme hardship”, which had to be proven in order to grant name suppression, Justice McQueen said.

She accepted the man had an identifiable name, that there would be mainstream and social media coverage of the case following publication of the man’s name, and that he had little support.

“These factors will combine to cause him distress and embarrassment that amount to hardship,” she said.

“Ultimately, however, I do not consider that these factors on their own are sufficient to establish that he will suffer extreme hardship following publication.”

The man’s interim name suppression will lapse at 5pm on June 27, unless he appeals Justice McQueen’s decision at the Court of Appeal.