Nyal Heke was imprisoned for nearly a decade yesterday, having already spent most of his adult life behind bars. Photo / Gerard O'Brien
Days after a woman was followed by a stranger and violated twice in a darkened Dunedin alleyway, she turned the tables on her attacker.
She tracked him down online.
And she ensnared her own rapist.
Yesterday at the Dunedin District Court, Nyal Heke (30) was jailed for nearly 10 years, reports Otago Daily Times.
The victim, who has permanent name suppression, was given his name by friends who had seen him hanging around her on the night of February 12 last year in Dunedin's CBD.
It took little effort to find the 30-year-old on Facebook.
The victim had already been to police and knew there was little likelihood of DNA evidence being found, since she had showered after the ordeal.
"I realised it would just be my word against his," the woman told the Otago Daily Times.
"I thought 'there's no harm in trying'. I didn't know I was going to get a reply."
She messaged Heke claiming not to have gone to police, asking why he had raped her and demanding an apology.
Less than nine hours later she got one.
"I'm really sorry I won't ever do [that] again," Heke responded.
And with that it became her word, and his own words, against him.
The jury took little time in finding Heke guilty of two counts of rape and Judge Michael Crosbie imposed a minimum non-parole period of 50% — a prison term of nine years nine months; necessary for "community protection and deterrence".
Heke had been on parole at the time of the offending and had two previous convictions for indecent assaults in 2005 and 2006, the court heard.
He had approached the woman about 5am in Dunedin's Exchange and asked if she would go home with him.She said no — the first of numerous rejections.
The victim suggested she should walk up High St past the casino and Heke would go a different way home.
CCTV showed her following the plan.
But Heke was recorded walking round the back of the casino, heading in the same direction.
"You ducked around on the other side," Judge Crosbie said.
"In a premeditated fashion you followed her, if not stalked her."
Heke made several passes at the woman as he pursued her up the hill, and she continually rebuffed him.
The defendant ushered her into a bushed walkway where he struck.
The judge described Heke's acts as "degrading".
The victim showered twice a day for a long time afterwards because she felt so dirty.
"That night I always replay in my head. I wish I'd run away or screamed ... but no-one was around, no-one would've heard," she told the ODT.
"I was just too scared. I just froze. I didn't want to end up dead."
She relished proving Heke's guilt at trial and said only genuine contrition would provide some relief.
The court though heard yesterday the man maintained his innocence.
"You remain of the opinion you are not guilty and you engaged in consensual sexual relations, and you don't know why she's done this to you," Judge Crosbie said.
Heke, though, accepted he "didn't treat her right" but put this down to his lack of experience in approaching women and poor role-modelling growing up.The judge said the situation was simple.
"No means no, Mr Heke," he said.
"She was entitled to feel safe and you preyed on her."
Heke's last prison term, for which he was still on parole during the sex attack, was a seven-and-a-half year stretch for wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
In 2010, he burst into a fellow inmate's cell and threw a jug of boiling water at him. Then he and three others set upon the man — also a sex offender — with metal shanks, inflicting 25 stab wounds.
The 19-year-old was found in a remote area in the hills of Upper Hutt.