Victim relieved at rapist's prison term

Janus Herewini Warmenhoven. Photo / Supplied

A young fitness instructor raped by a lecturer during a birthday night out is relieved her attacker is behind bars.

Wananga o Aotearoa lecturer Janus Herewini Warmenhoven, 32, was yesterday sentenced to five years and nine months in jail.

After nearly two years of counselling and emotional grief - since the rape in a car parked near Auckland's Viaduct - his 26-year-old victim said she finally had some closure from the verdict.

"I think six years is reasonable," she told the Herald before the hearing.

During the Auckland District Court sentencing the woman read her victim impact statement from behind a screen, describing the effect on her mental state, her relationships and the consequent onset of post-traumatic stress disorder.

A jury found Warmenhoven guilty of the rape at trial in March.

The attack occurred after Warmenhoven and his victim met at an Auckland bar following birthday drinks at the young woman's flat.

Warmenhoven's family and friends filled one side of the public gallery, while his victim's supporters sat on the other.

They included the grandmother of a Brisbane baby killed in suspicious circumstances in 2003.

In 2006 a Brisbane Supreme Court jury found Warmenhoven not guilty of murder and manslaughter in relation to the death. Warmenhoven will be eligible for parole after serving a third of his sentence.