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Offender Databases Peter Waihape

Peter Steven Waihape

Alias

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Offences

Murder of a 24 year old Christchurch prostitute in December 2005
Abducted and raped a 17 year old woman four days earlier
A long list of previous convictions for aggravated robbery, theft, car conversion, breaching bail, receiving stolen property, driving while disqualified, failing to give his details and breach of community work etc etc.

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1977

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentences imposed on 17th August 2006 in the High Court at Christchurch as follows;
Sentenced to a mandatory life term with 18 years non parole for murder
Sentenced to preventive detention with 8 years non parole for rape
Sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for sexual violation and abduction
All sentences to be served concurrently
Earliest parole date January 2024

Background
NZ Herald story here with the sentencing detailed here
From The Press
The man accused of killing a Christchurch prostitute and dumping her body in the Avon River has entered a surprise guilty plea to her murder. Two days after pleading not guilty at a depositions hearing, Peter Steven Waihape, 29, unemployed, appeared at a special sitting of the High Court in Christchurch yesterday. He faced five charges of rape, kidnapping and murder of the 24-year-old woman in December, as well as charges for the kidnapping and rape of a 17-year-old woman four days earlier. Before Justice Hansen, Waihape pleaded guilty to murder, as well as raping and abducting the 17-year-old, for which he was remanded for sentence on August 17.

He did not enter a plea for allegedly raping and kidnapping the prostitute, and a pre-trial date was set for July 7. Police allege Waihape ran down the murder victim in a Chester Street East carpark, in central Christchurch, early on December 15. Police said at the time they believed injuries sustained in the collision with the car caused her death. Her partly clothed body, bound at the wrists, was found in the Avon River in Dallington later that same day. She was the second prostitute to be murdered in eight months in central Christchurch. Suzie Sutherland, 36, was found naked and strangled in a vacant section in Peterborough Street. South African immigrant Jule Patrick Burns has been jailed for her murder.

Speaking to The Press from his Christchurch home yesterday, the father of the dead woman said visions of his daughter's murder tormented him. "I have a lot of hatred. I go to bed at nights and worry about how the hell I could handle being run over four or five times. She meant everything to me, just like my granddaughter does now," he said. A photo gallery of his daughter covers every wall, and her daughter's toys are scattered around the bedroom where her mother used to sleep. The man said his daughter was his only child and the light of his life. "She had never looked better and never been happier. I hoped she would get married and lead a normal life, but that will never eventuate now," he said.

His daughter was always talking of what she was going to do with her life. "She was going to be a lot of things. She talked of being a social worker at one stage." As a child she had her father wrapped around her finger, he said. "She always liked dogs. She brought one home one day when she was a little girl and said it was her birthday present. I just said `yes', and we had it for years." A long-term friend said she often talked of aspirations and doing good with her life. "She had been studying at university. She was talking to me about being a lawyer or my secretary. She was really proud of her Maori side," the friend said.

"I was like an older brother in a lot of ways. She used to come around and cook me dinner. She would say, `I'm going to cook you a healthy tea', because I can't cook. "She was just really caring and genuine. She had a really sparkly personality and valued friendship and was always standing up for people." The prostitute label was "frustrating" and "angering", he said. "It was such a small part of who she was. That's the frustrating thing, the way it's been sensationalised." The woman's father said he was upset Waihape had not pleaded guilty to kidnapping and rape charges. "I just want it (the trial) to be over with and to see justice done."

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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