Judicial oversight brings killer-rapist back to court

A judicial oversight brought a convicted killer and rapist back to Christchurch from Paremoremo Prison in Auckland today for a five-minute High Court hearing.

Accompanied by three prison officers from Auckland, Peter Steven Waihape, 29, appeared before Justice Lester Chisholm in the High Court at Christchurch to have a minimum term of imprisonment imposed for rape.

When Waihape was sentenced last month for raping and murdering a Christchurch prostitute last December 15 and abducting and sexually violating a 17-year-old four days earlier, Justice Chisholm omitted to add the minimum term after imposing a sentence of preventive detention for the rape.

Waihape was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 years for murder and the indefinite term of preventive detention for rape.

Waihape, a burly, bearded man, was also sentenced to six years' jail for the earlier abduction and four years for sexual violation -- both concurrent with the greater sentence.

Today Justice Chisholm added a minimum eight years to the rape sentence.

He apologised to Waihape and counsel for having to bring them back to court.

Justice Chisholm said he'd felt there was "no useful purpose" in imposing a minimum sentence for the rape when he had handed down an 18-year minimum non-parole period on the murder charge.

Unfortunately, he said, he'd overlooked Section 89 (1) of the Sentencing Act, which placed an obligation on judges to impose a "minimum period of imprisonment" when sentencing prisoners to preventive detention.

Today's sentencing, Justice Chisholm said, was "entirely academic" and would make no difference to the jail term Waihape would serve.

Waihape admitted engaging the prostitute for sex before raping and repeatedly running over the 24-year-old with his car in an inner-city carpark.

At his sentencing on August 17, the court was told that Waihape had partially strangled the prostitute -- the mother of a young toddler -- tied her hands, ran over her and kicked her at least twice, ignoring her pleas for mercy.

He dumped the woman's body in the Avon River where she was found later that day with her hands still bound.

Justice Chisholm said the level of Waihape's brutality in the killing was "not only high, it was extraordinary".

The 17-year-old he'd abducted just four days earlier managed to talk him into letting her go after he violated her.

- NZPA