Paedophile faces life in jail

A decade after he abducted a 4-year-old girl, sexually violated her and threw her over a river bank in an attempt to murder her, Edward John Gulliver, 52, was sentenced to preventive detention in the High Court at Wanganui after pleading guilty.

She was rescued by passersby but was unable to say what had happened to her. Gulliver was found out five years after the 1996 crime when he was in a mental health institution and told his counsellor what had happened.

Justice Warwick Gendall called the crime "deviant" and told Gulliver he should spend the rest of his life in jail. He sentenced Gulliver to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years on the sexual violation charges and sentences of 12 years, to be served concurrently, for kidnapping and attempted murder.

- NZPA