KEY POINTS:
Convicted rapist Peter McNamara's application for home detention will now be heard at the end of this month after the Parole Board revoked an earlier decision because it had failed to tell his victim.
McNamara, a millionaire who fathered a baby from behind bars, was this week granted home detention two years into his seven-year sentence, the Dominion Post reported.
The board was supposed to tell his victim, who was enrolled on the Victim Notification Register, before its hearing so that she might make a submission.
It failed to do so, instead contacting her during the week to admit its mistake.
Given only a day to make a formal submission on the home detention application the woman rejected the tight time frame and the board revoked its decision.
The victim of the 1989 rape at Mt Maunganui by McNamara and former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum told the newspaper of her disgust at an "appalling decision" and how rape complainants are treated by the justice system.
"When they rang I felt like my world was falling in. I felt like I was back in 1989 being driven down a beach by Peter McNamara who had already planned to rape me with his mates. It was like having my heart ripped out of my chest."
The board told her yesterday a new committee will hear McNamara's application to go home on August 28.
The board's administrative support services manager, Alistair Spierling, said he took responsibility for a serious error in not contacting the victim.
He had personally apologised and a formal apology had been sent.
- NZPA
