Two men each jailed for 4½ years for rape

Press, 26 February 1986, Page 5

Two men each jailed for 4½ years for rape

Two men who twice raped a pregnant woman, aged 20, in her home in the early hours while she was alone were each jailed for 4i/ 2 years by Mr Justice Hardie Boys in the High Court yesterday. David Baxter McCreath, aged 26, and Stephen Bruce McClintock, aged 20, both unemployed, were found guilty by a jury earlier this month of twice raping the woman on September 28. Both still claim they are innocent of the charges. Mr Justice Hardie Boys said that he would deal with both on the basis of the jury’s verdict, which he had no reason to think was mistaken. “On the other hand it is only fair to say that with you both maintaining your innocence, even today, it would be a little unreal to be critical of your apparent lack of remorse and of the fact that you have adhered to an account which you still insist was

true, even though the jury declined to accept it,” his Honour said. On the clear evidence, the jury obviously came to the conclusion that this was a sustained assault by two strong and fit young men on a woman of obviously limited abilities, who had let them into her flat in all innocence. His Honour said he found it hard to accept that this was a crime of impulse, as had been suggested by one counsel. He could think of no reason for their going to the flat other than the expectation of having intercourse with the woman.

“It may well be that because of McCreath’s previous association with the woman some two weeks before, you thought there would be no difficulty about that. I am sure thay is why you went there. I cannot imagine any other reason,” said his Honour.

When it was obvious that the woman was not willing, McCreath and McClintock carried on notwithstanding her objections.

The only mitigating factors were that there was no serious violence, that the young woman was not badly hurt, and that she was not subjected to other kinds of humiliation. “But otherwise it is a bad case and must be dealt with in accordance with the Court’s clear public duty to express the public’s outrage and condemnation of this kind of behaviour,” his Honour said.

The sentence had to reflect that this was an attack on a young woman alone in her own home and with two assailants acting in concert. There was nothing in their personal history to cause him to distinguish between them. Both were

equally involved in what happened. “You are both sadly, I think through no fault of your own, living rather aimless and bored lives, which might have been so different for both of you, but lives in which some form of physical and emotion outburst is not so surprising,” his Honour said.

For McClintock, Mr G. M. Brodie said that it was a great tragedy that he appeared on such a serious charge. In his early years he had shown a great deal of promise and had achieved representative honours in several sports. His father had died when he was very young. Until he shifted to Christchurch, McClintock had been in regular employment. He did not consider himself an alcoholic, as was suggested in the probation report. He had drifted into trouble only recently after leaving his home town. McClintock had the potential to make a success of his life, Mr Brodie said.

Mr S. C. Barker, for McCreath, said that his client had a sad and difficult background. Both his parents and his stepfather had bad alcohol problems and he had inherited the same disability. Liquor was a contributing factor to the rape. McCreath had been drinking throughout the day and evening. He still maintained his innocence. It was not a violent rape. Some two weeks before, McCreath had had an association with the woman, said Mr Barker.

For the Crown, Mr B. M. Stanaway said that the offences had a number of aggravating factors. There was a premeditated plan to have intercourse with the woman. The two men acted in concert and both raped her twice in her own home when she was alone and pregnant.

Both men had shown a complete disregard for the woman’s physical and mental wellbeing, and had shown no sign of remorse, Mr Stanaway said.