Killer's rape conviction revealed

A mid-Canterbury man who murdered hitch-hiker Lisa Blakie had previously brutally raped another young woman -- a secret he kept hidden from the public until now.

Timothy David Taylor, 35, of Darfield, was convicted in 2003 of the rape of a Rangiora teenager but that crime could not be revealed while he tried to overturn his murder conviction.

He was found guilty of the murder of Lisa Blakie by a jury in the High Court in Christchurch in April, 2002. It was only after his arrest that his young rape victim came forward to report she too had been a victim of Taylor's violence.

When the Court of Appeal rejected Taylor's challenge to his murder conviction this week, the decision also ended an earlier court order preventing the media identifying Taylor as a rapist.

The Christchurch District Court jury that found Taylor guilty of rape in 2003 was told the offence had been committed in 1986 but the victim never came forward until she heard a man of the same name and age as her attacker was accused of murder.

The victim told the court the impact of the rape when she was 16 had devastated her life but she had tried to put the incident behind her.

"I personally believe in forgiveness. I thought maybe it was a one-off and he was probably now married, with two kids and a dog," she had told the court.

"If he'd been married with kids, I'd have left him alone. The murder charge showed that this person was out there doing more of this stuff, and I wanted to help stop him doing anything else."

The jury rejected Taylor's claim that the woman had consented to sex on a lonely North Canterbury roadside after she initially rebuffed his advances during a night out.

Judge Phillip Moran said the rape had had a "profound" effect on the victim.

"It's screwed up her life," he told Taylor as he sentenced him to an additional four years jail on top of the 10-year non-parole period imposed in April 2002 for the murder.

Lisa Blakie's father, Doug Blakie, said he was relieved that Taylor's rape conviction could finally be revealed so the public would know the full extent of his offending.

At the time of the rape conviction, Taylor was also serving a 10-year jail term for a series of violent gunpoint robberies committed around the time he strangled Lisa Blakie and left her face-down and partially-clad in the Porter River, beside the Arthurs Pass highway.

Doug Blakie vowed to fight to keep Taylor in jail for as long as possible once he becomes eligible for parole after 14 years.

"I hope they'll never let him out but I know he'll get out at some stage," he said.

Blakie said he remained angry that the Crown decided not to seek a minimum non- parole period beyond the standard 10 years for murder.

"The Crown Solicitor says Lis's murder was at the lower end of the scale but that's bloody bulls... Taylor drove Lis all the way to Porter River and then killed her. He had every opportunity to let her go. That's what annoys me," he said.

"Shooting someone is horrific but it's instantaneous. Strangling someone takes time and it meant Taylor had plenty of time to reconsider and release her. It makes it even more horrific for me as a parent."

- nzpa