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The victim of high-profile pack-rapist Peter McNamara says there is a systemic failure in New Zealand to recognise the damage done to rape victims.
The woman, who has permanent name suppression, was raped in Mt Maunganui in 1989 by McNamara and police officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum.
She was 20 years old at the time.
She was lured to a lifeguard tower by McNamara, who was then a lifeguard, on the pretext of a lunch date but was instead pack-raped.
McNamara, a businessman, was jailed for seven years.
However, he was released last week after serving just 2 1/2 years of his sentence.
While behind bars he fathered a child after his sperm was smuggled out of the prison.
The victim is now challenging the decision of the Parole Board, who decided that McNamara did not pose a public risk, to release him early.
"You have to work out whether he is a threat to the community and as far as we're concerned he actually is," the victim told Radio New Zealand.
"Possibly not in the way of reoffending but in the essential way in which it discourages women from coming forward to report rape because you know at the end of the day that he might only serve a third of his sentence so why go through all that heartache?
"I can't see at the end of the day how you can open a door and say, 'Go home', when you've proclaimed you're innocent and yet you've been jailed. He's still a rapist as far as I'm concerned."
She said some days she regretted coming forward about the rape because of all the court cases and Parole Board failings.
The Parole Board forgot to contact her and she was told he would be released on home detention after the decision had been made.
The decision was overturned, but he has now been released.
"It was just a long succession of things that went horribly wrong," the victim said.
"It still affects my life on a daily basis.
"I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder of a chronic nature and also depression and anxiety, insomnia.
"It cost me my marriage. It cost me many relationships with family and friends too.
"People who just don't understand the situation, people who deny the situation because it does just sort of read like a really badly written story."
She said she would attend parole hearings for Shipton and Schollum in the next few months.
- NZPA
