Pack-rape accused should be given re-trial, court told

Four men convicted of pack-raping a woman at Mount Maunganui 17 years ago should be given a re-trial because new evidence suggested she approached one of the men in a sexual manner at a Crowded House concert after the incident, the Court of Appeal was told today.

Mount Maunganui businessman Peter McNamara, Papamoa fireman Warren Hales and two men whose identities remain suppressed were convicted last July of raping and abducting the then 20-year-old woman in January 1989.

All four men are appealing their convictions and all but Hales are appealing their sentences which range from seven to eight and a half years.

Hales' lawyer Greg King said evidence by his client that the victim had approached him at the concert in a friendly way and rubbed her hands over his body five days after she said she was brutally raped was not accepted by the jury.

"If this evidence was in front of the jury, can it reasonably be said to have resulted in a different (trial) outcome," he told the three-judge bench. "It clearly would have."

The now 37-year-old woman told a jury at the High Court at Wellington the men lured her into a hut on the pretext of having a lunch date with one of them. Once there she was bound, raped, forced to perform oral sex and violated. She gave evidence she'd never been to a Crowded House concert.

Mr King said today two former associates of Hales had now provided sworn statements that they'd seen him at the concert.

"If that is a plausible scenario, then that is behaviour so inconsistent with allegations of being viciously gang-raped."

However, Mr King admitted emails between the two associates showed they had colluded over their statements and clearly believed the four men were innocent.

The hearing is expected to take two days.

- NZPA