Lesbian couple jailed for sexual attack on woman

A lesbian couple were today jailed for six years and two years respectively for sexually violating another woman at their Masterton home.

Kristina Rachael Oliver, 33, and Lynette Kaye Stewart, 38, were found guilty last month of the December 2003 attack.

Oliver and Stewart were sentenced in Wellington District Court today for being a party to sexual violation by unlawful connection.

Oliver also received nine months -- to be served concurrently -- on two charges of assault.

Their trial for sexually violating another woman was said to be a first in New Zealand. But Judge Bruce Davidson said this was not the case as there had been several previous convictions.

Oliver sobbed visibly in the dock as the judge passed sentence while Stewart stood impassively.

Stewart was given leave to apply for home detention but Judge Davidson refused to defer the start of her sentence.

The incident happened after the victim, whose identity is suppressed, was invited to Oliver and Stewart's home for coffee but was then attacked.

In November's jury trial, the victim wept as she said she thought she was going to die in the attack, and spoke vividly of the pain she endured.

At the trial, defence lawyers Helen Croft and Jock Blathwayt suggested the victim's story was pure fantasy, an assertion she denied.

"I know what those two girls did to me that night and I'll never forget it."

She also denied lying to the police, but said she had not told them her whole story at one time as she had not felt able to do so.

- NZPA