Home invader jailed after third rape trial

A Dunedin man who raped a woman while her child lay crying in the same bed was yesterday jailed for 10 years.

Christchurch District Court Judge Phillip Moran imposed a five-year minimum non-parole period on Wayne Andrew Herbert Adams, 36, who has now been tried three times for the series of Timaru sex offences.

Five months after the original rape, he broke into the woman's home again and seemed intent on another rape.

"She was terrified but she had the presence of mind to talk you to your senses," said Judge Moran.

"You had a discussion with her, apologised and left."

Crown prosecutor Tim Gresson said the woman had been further victimised by having to give evidence at three trials.

Adams, a commercial traveller at the time of the offences, was found guilty at his first trial, but a retrial was ordered on appeal.

At the second trial, the jury could not agree, but the third trial found him guilty on five charges. He appeared yesterday for sentence on charges of entering a building with intent to commit a crime [rape], two charges of rape, a burglary, and indecently assaulting the woman when he went back to the house.

Defence counsel Mike Radford emphasised that Adams was of good character, well regarded by his employers, hard-working, and the offending was a tragedy for everyone concerned.

"It was a tragedy for Adams and the community he served so well."

Mr Gresson criticised Adams for trying to blacken the name of the woman by alleging that she had expected to be paid for the sex and had given false evidence.

Judge Moran said Adams had been in Timaru on July 19, 2002, walking home drunk from a hotel, when he went to the door of the woman's sleep-out.

He left, but soon returned intent on rape.

He demanded sex and threatened her and in her vulnerable situation she co-operated.

Her young son was in the same bed, crying, as the rape took place.

Adams went to the woman's house one night in December 2002, got inside through an unlocked door and again was clearly intent on sex.

The incident had affected the mother and child, the judge said.

"She has insomnia. She is afraid when she goes to sleep at night. When you were granted bail after your successful appeal she went into hiding.

"She withdrew from the course she was attending.

"She has become extremely cautious and anxious about male company and now has difficulty forming any sort of natural relationships with young men. Her son is insecure and emotional," Judge Moran said.

The judge noted that Adams continued to protest his innocence, in spite of the guilty verdicts at two of the trials.

"Your prospects for rehabilitation are compromised by your inability to own up for what you have done."

He said the offending was serious enough to warrant imposition of a minimum non-parole period because Adams had invaded the woman's home and her bed and had raped her in the presence of her child.

- NZPA