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John Durno
.
Rape of a 25 year old Gisborne woman in 1993
Multiple other convictions for rape
.
.
none known
Born 1951
Prison
Sentenced to three and a half years for rape in 1986
Was sentenced to preventive detention for the two rapes in 1985,
changed to eight years on appeal cumulative on the earlier three and a half years.
Released from prison in November 1993 and re-offended again
Sentenced to preventive detention (12 years minimum) in August 1994
Became eligible for parole November 2005
Due for next hearing September 2008
Background
From NZ Herald story 12th July 1994
Within in 24 hours of being released from jail for raping three women, John Christopher Durno raped again. His victim was a 25 year old Gisborne woman who had become a penpal while he was serving time in Paremoremo prison north of Auckland. She did not know why he was in prison. Durno, aged 43, unemployed of Birkdale, Auckland, was found guilty by a jury at the High Court at Auckland of raping the 25 year old on November 18 last year and raping another woman in 1982. The jury could not reach a verdict on a third charge of raping a woman in 1978. Jury members reacted with a shock when Justice Blanchard told them after they presented their verdicts that Durno had raped his former penpal within 24 hours of being released from jail for earlier rapes. The jury had not been told that Durno had previous convictions for rape involving three women in 1985 and a third in 1986.
He had been jailed for 3 ˝ years for the 1986 offence and in 1987 was sentenced to preventive detention for the two rapes in 1985. Due to a legal technicality, that sentence was reduced by the Court of Appeal to eight years imprisonment cumulative on the earlier 3 ˝ years, making a total of 11 ˝ years. Durno served 7 ˝ years and was released on November 18 last year – the same day he raped the Gisborne penpal who had come to visit him in. In reducing the sentence for the 1985 offence to eight years jail the Court of Appeal ruled that the sentencing judge had erred in handing down preventive detention. At the time, the legislation required that a rapist was liable to this if he had previously been convicted of a similar offence. In Durno’s case he had been arrested on two charges of rape in 1985 but absconded while on bail and committed a further rape while on the run.
Although in fact he had committed more than one rape, he had not been convicted at the time he committed the later offence. A change in the law last year allows judges to impose preventive detention where a man commits only one rape, provided they are satisfied from psychiatric reports that the offender is an ongoing danger women or children. The jury spent about 9 ˝ hours coming to its verdict last night. After wards the crown prosecuter Mr Roy Wade, told the judge that the Crown was unlikely to seek a retrial on the undecided 1978 rape charge. This would depend on the victim’s point of view, Durno’s sentencing and the possibility of an appeal. Durno was remanded for sentencing next month. In his final address, Mr Wade described a parade of witnesses in a rape trial as being like a re-run on This is Your Life. Instead of saying what a wonderful person John Christopher Durno was, however they said he was the man who raped them. He described Durno as "a highly dangerous, violent and evil man."
Court of Appeal decision here
