Triple rapist jailed for six years

Press, 20 April 1982, Page 4

Triple rapist jailed for six years

A man, who terrorised a young woman living alone in a Sydenham flat, beat her up and raped her three times, including twice on the one night, was jailed for six years by Mr Justice Casey in the High Court yesterday. William Haimoana, aged 26, unemployed, known as “Big Willie” because of his size, was found guilty by a jury last month on three charges of raping a woman, aged 21, on November 11, 12 and 18.

Evidence was given at the trial that the woman had met Haimoana through a man named Rocky Hill. Haimoana began pestering her and one evening climbed in her flat window which she had left open so the cat could get in.

Haimoana kicked in the mirror on a wardrobe, made the woman pick up the glass in her bare feet which were cut, threatened to smash her stereo set and then raped her while she sobbed and struggled. He kept her all night in the single bed and then raped her again about 6 a.m.

The woman was threatened that if she told anyone or went to the police that he would come back and smash her up and everything she owned. She was so terrified that she stayed with friends and then decided to move out of the flat. About a week later

Haimoana walked into the flat uninvited, punched the woman on the mouth putting her teeth through her lip, threw her on to cushions on the lounge floor and raped her.

Mr N. J. Dunlop, for Haimoana, said that his client had very little by way of a criminal record and had only previously been fined $lOO. He had a good work record, had been employed by the Electricity Department for almost seven years and had left of his own accord. He had worked for the Gas Company for 18 months before being made redundant. It was important for the Court to consider why this married man with two children with such a background should be appearing for sentence on three rape convictions. The answer was to be found in the psychiatric report in which the doctor said: "This man’s history of recurring episodes of loss of control of aggressive impulses out of proportion to precipitating events with an absence of aggression and impulsivity between episodes suggests an intermittent explosive disorder.”

The evidence of the woman complainant supported that view. The woman said that Haimoana’s mood fluctuated wildly. After taking the telephone off the hook he talked about his

work for a period. She kept talking to him in an effort to keep him calm. But whenever she made a remark he did not like Haimoana flew into a rage. At an early stage Haimoana had informed him that he had trouble in controlling his temper. Apart from the long standing disorder suggested by the psychiatrist there was no explanation for Haimoana’s angry and aggressive behaviour. They were not the actions of a man who set out in a cool, calculated way to have intercourse.

This was a tragic case for the woman involved but also for Haimoana, who after not having a good start in life, had by and large been a responsible citizen and now faced a term of imprisonment arising from a behavioural disorder with which he had been struggling for years, said Mr Dunlop. His Honour said that nobody liked sending a man to prison with a work record such as Haimoana’s. His education was fairly restricted and he had the usual sorry record of family problems with an unsettled childhood and heavy social drinking. “Undoubtedly all this played a part in the events which took place on these nights,” his Honour said. After drinking for much of the day Haimoana had gone to the woman’s flat to have

sex with her because he thought that “she would be an easy lay.” It was perfectly obvious that Haimoana intended to have sex with the woman whether she consented or not. “You set about terrorising the young woman and finally forced her to have intercourse with you in circumstances in which it must have been clear that she was not consenting and did not want it. "You stayed that night and had sex again with her in the morning before you left under ■ circumstances similar to those of the previous night,” his Honour said. A week later Haimoana returned to this already terrorised woman who had made up her mind to shift to get clear from Haimoana. He violently assaulted the woman and had sex with her. "There can be no excuse for this type of conduct, even taking into account what the psychiatrist has said about you. There is no treatment which could bring about any improvement in this uncontrollable resort to violence in which you indulged on these occasions. He says there is a tendency for the problem to decrease towards middle age,” said his Honour. The Court had to treat the offences very seriously and the public interest required that offences of that nature be severely punished, his Honour said.