Tourists' sex attacker jailed for five years

A Tokomaru Bay man who sexually attacked two 19-year-old English tourists last year has been jailed for five years and four months.

Huitau Joshua Te Hau, 30, was convicted on Friday after pleading guilty to three counts of unlawful sexual connection by sexual violation, committed at Tokomaru Bay, north of Gisborne, on August 30 last year.

He was ordered to serve a minimum non-parole period of three years.

Crown prosecutor Steve Manning told Gisborne District Court the women were terrified and subjected to a prolonged act of sexual violation lasting up to two hours.

Judge Mark Perkins said Te Hau was at the same party at a local sports club as the two women, but had not met them.

He went to their campervan, which he entered without invitation, and sexually attacked them for between 90 minutes and two hours.

Te Hau took a cellphone so they could not call for help and, using his full body weight, lay across the women in the confined space of the campervan.

He performed indecencies on both of them.

Te Hau later changed his physical appearance by shaving off his goatee beard and cutting his hair.

Mr Manning said the "collection" of factors contributing to the offending against two victims was easily comparable to rape and the offence was one that could draw the same penalty.

Te Hau's actions showed a level of calculation and consideration.

Aggravating factors included that there were two victims, the women were detained over a period of time, the level of violence involved, and the significant effects on the victims.

Defence counsel Doug Rishworth said Te Hau had no previous criminal convictions and had not raped the women.

Judge Perkins used a starting point of eight years in prison and gave Te Hau a discount of a third for his guilty plea and his lack of previous convictions.

- NZPA