Man found guilty of attempted rape in Riccarton car- park

Press, 8 November 1978, Page 5

Man found guilty of attempted rape in Riccarton car- park

A man with more than a 1 dozen criminal convictions and who has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for assault with intent to rape and to four years for attempted rape, was found guilty by a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday on a charge of attempted rape. The man, whose name has been suppressed, was remanded in custody to November 14 for sentence by Mr Justice Casey.

Evidence was given at the trial which began on Monday that the woman was returning home after making purchases al a Church Corner dairy when accused, who was walking a dog, attempted to rape her in the : car-park of Haywrights, Upper Riccarton, on the evening of June 20.

Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the Crown and Mrs D. J. Orchard for accused who pleaded not

: guilty to alternative charges I of attempting to rape the woman, and indecently assaulting her. Accused did not give .evidence but the defence called I two witnesses — Dr L. L. Treadgold, a pathologist who gave evidence about a scar near accused’s left eyebrow, and Mr R. D. Gilchrist, the manager of the Upper Riccarton branch of Haywrights, who testified about the lighting in the car-park. In his final address to the jury Mr Panckhurst said that the evidence clearly disclosed that accused intended I to rape the 22-year-old married woman. Mrs Orchard said that attempted rape had not been proved because the man. who had attacked the woman, had ample opportunity to have sexual intercourse with the woman but did not do so. There were a number of

ssvery serious discrepancies in efthe woman's identification of :-f accused. She gave the police jno description of the man's facial features but gave his dirace and approximate age. .. The first time she menojtioned that her attacker had' r monstrous eyes was at the hearing in the Supreme e Court. She also failed to. - notice the scar near a’c-'j cused’s eyebrow. u Had accused been guilty he- would never have told: ejthe police that it was his df custom to walk his German j Shepherd pup after work in d that area. The German Shep-•-iherd was a very common I type of dog. The woman had been confused artd upset at nthe time and members of the injury would have grave e. doubts about the value of i-.her evidence of iden- - Tification. Mrs Orchard said. it The jury took one hour :and a half to reach its verif'diet.