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escalating violence in our community
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Sensible Sentencing Trust
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Rape and abduction of an 18 year old New Brighton, Christchurch woman in July 2003
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Gary Isherwood was the lead offender
none known
Born 1974
Prison
Sentenced to 11 years with a 5 year 6 month non-parole parole period in April 2004
Unsuccessfully appealed the conviction in March 2005
Background
NZ Herald story here
From Christchurch Press story 16th March 2005
Two men who injected a Christchurch teenager with drugs against her will and brutally gang- raped her have lost an appeal against their convictions. A Christchurch jury last April found Gary Maui Isherwood and Andrew Clive Hartley guilty of kidnapping, administering Ritalin and methadone, four charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and three charges of rape.
Isherwood, 26, was said to be "a menace to women", and was given a sentence of preventive detention and will serve at least 10 years. He committed the offences just three weeks after his release from an eight-year sentence imposed in 1999 for plying a 14-year-old schoolgirl with drugs and getting her to work as a prostitute to pay for them once addicted. Hartley, 30, must serve at least half of an 11-year term.
Isherwood and Hartley appealed against their convictions last August. Three Court of Appeal judges rejected submissions made by the pair's lawyer, Stan Barker, that the jury in the trial was not properly directed on the law. He said the jury should have been told the woman, a pretty 18- year-old described during the trial as "clearly vulnerable", could have consented to sex even though she was intoxicated. But Justices McGrath, Glazebrook and O'Regan ruled it was up to the jury to decide whether consent was given, and not a matter of law to be directed by the trial judge.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury she felt like she had "no control whatsoever" after being forcibly injected with drugs after a night out. She had agreed to go to a motel with Isherwood and Hartley "to chill out", making it clear she did not want to have sex, but found herself blacking out. The drugs Ritalin and methadone were found in her blood. After both men raped the teenager and forced her to perform sex acts, Isherwood told her he would take her to parlours to make money in the sex industry.