KEY POINTS:
Two men who have admitted charges after the kidnap and robbery of two Dutch honeymooners in the Bay of Islands last year are to be sentenced in the High Court at Whangarei.
A district court judge in Kaikohe yesterday declined to sentence the pair - Keith Anthony McEwen, 30, unemployed, of no fixed address, and Christopher Mana Manuel, 27, unemployed, of Dargaville.
Judge John McDonald noted that the district court did not have jurisdiction to sentence defendants to preventive detention.
The attack, which began at the Haruru Falls carpark on the night of November 10 and continued into the early hours of the following day, left the young woman tourist raped and sodomised and both victims ex-tremely traumatised.
Judge McDonald said the district court could in some cases only sentence prisoners to a maximum allowable finite sentence, which for sexual violation by rape was 20 years.
At an earlier hearing in the Kaikohe District Court, McEwen pleaded guilty to one charge of rape, five charges of sexual violation, two of kidnapping, one of attempting to stupefy the young woman, two of aggravated robbery involving a shotgun and one of unlawfully using the couple's bankcard.
Manuel later admitted six charges - two of kidnapping, two of aggravated robbery, one of being a party with McEwen to sexual violation by rape and one of unlawfully using a bankcard.
The young couple have remained in New Zealand and are understood to be back in Northland being cared for by Victim Support contacts.
In the Kaikohe court last month, after McEwen and Manuel had both pleaded guilty, the Crown sought to have sentencing transferred to the High Court so a sentence of preventive detention (an indefinite jail term) could be considered for McEwen.
In a written decision yesterday, Judge McDonald said section 28G of the District Courts Act gave "an unfettered jurisdiction" to a district court judge to decline to sentence.
Rape and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection were offences that both qualified for preventive detention.
The purpose of that detention was to protect the community from those posing a significant and ongoing risk to the safety of its members.
The judge said the offending in this case was serious.
It showed a degree of planning and involved gross sexual offending.
He said McEwen had been offending since 1998 and that offending had continued almost unbroken until his most recent offences (against the young Dutch couple).
While on parole in March, 2001, McEwen was jailed for 7 1/2 years for burgling the Tui Ship Museum at Waitangi and stealing jewels and treasures collected over the years by marine adventurer Kelly Tarlton.
After he was released from prison McEwen breached his parole and committed more offences.
Judge McDonald said McEwen attempted to shift blame for his offending on to his substance abuse, in particular his constant use of pure methamphetamine, otherwise known as P.
The judge believed the High Court would have to seriously consider preventive detention as a sentencing option for McEwen.
He also declined to sentence Manuel, who has not been sentenced to any term of imprisonment before, on the basis of his belief that both men should be sentenced at the same time by the same sentencing judge.
No date has been set for a High Court sentence.
Both men remain in custody.
