Napier man jailed 14 years for rape of teenage girl

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A Napier father of four has avoided preventive detention and instead been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for what has been described as a "bizarre" night of offending which ended in the rape of a teenage girl.

Jourdan Cooper, 38, who was sentenced to six years jail for the rape of a 63-year-old woman in 1993, was yesterday sentenced to 14 years in prison for the rape of a Napier teenager in October 2009, in what was described as a "chillingly similar" crime by Crown prosecutor Steve Manning.

Cooper left the bar where he had been stranded by friends and walked 3km to a female associate's property where he beat her and held a knife to another woman's throat. He then drove drunk to another house, broke in and raped a teenage girl, Justice Christopher Allan said at the High Court in Napier yesterday.

He took off his clothes, punched her repeatedly and threatened to slit her throat and kill her flatmate if she made any noise.

Hawke's Bay Today reported the court heard his victim was still traumatised and had tried to kill herself to avoid giving evidence at his trial.

Justice Allan said to qualify for a preventive detention sentence, the court needed to be satisfied he would likely commit a similar offence at the end of his finite prison sentence.

The crown's application for preventive detention was denied and instead a sentence of 14 years for rape, five years for burglary, two years both for threatening to kill and injuring with intent to injure, six months both for male assaults female and possession of an offensive weapon was handed down - all to be served concurrently with his rape sentence.

On the rape charge he would serve a minimum of eight years behind bars.

- NZPA