Rapist to appeal conviction

A convicted rapist who cross-examined the complainant in court has been granted leave by the Supreme Court to appeal his conviction.

John Jason Cumming, 31, was convicted in 2002 of holding a 16-year-old girl captive at his Christchurch flat for eight days while he raped and beat her.

He was sentenced to preventive detention and ordered to serve a minimum of 7 1/2 years in jail following the nine-day trial, during which he chose to represent himself.

Through his lawyer Robert Lithgow, Cumming applied to appeal the conviction and sentence last year but the Court of Appeal found the trial was generally fair and turned him down.

Mr Lithgow said during that appeal Cumming had an untreated attention deficit disorder and suffered from paranoid delusions.

During the earlier trial, Cumming conducted a day-long cross-examination of the complainant which was at times irrelevant to the case. He had fallen out with four lawyers earlier in the case.

Yesterday the Supreme Court granted a request by Mr Lithgow to appeal the conviction and sentence.

The grounds cited were to determine whether a miscarriage of justice had occurred because Cumming conducted his defence without a lawyer.

- NZPA