Mt Maunganui pack rape appeals to be heard today

Four men convicted last year of the pack rape of a woman at Mt Maunganui 17 years ago will have their appeals heard by the Court of Appeal today.

Mt Maunganui businessman Peter McNamara, Papamoa fireman Warren Hales and two men whose identities remain suppressed were convicted in July of raping and abducting the then 20-year-old woman.

The two unnamed men were also convicted of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one was convicted of a second rape charge.

Both unnamed men were acquitted of sexually violating the woman with an object, details of which are suppressed.

The four men were jailed for terms of between five-and-a-half and eight-and-a-half years following the two-week trial in the High Court at Wellington.

The now 37-year-old woman told the jury the men lured her into a hut on the pretext of having a lunch date with one of the unnamed men.

Once there she was bound, raped, forced to perform oral sex and brutally violated.

The men maintained throughout the trial the woman had orchestrated consensual group sex and denied restraining her.

The appeal is set down for two days.

- NZPA