Luke James Henry
The Crown is asking for an open-ended preventive term to be considered for Luke James Henry, after a jury convicted him on charges of kidnapping, choking, and raping a woman.
The jury’s verdicts – all but one were unanimous – were delivered after about eight hours of deliberations in the five day trial.
The jury convicted him on two charges of raping the woman in the September 2016 incident, two of assaulting her, and one of kidnapping her. He admitted two other assault charges on the same woman, as the trial began.
After the verdicts, Crown prosecutor Barnaby Hawes asked Justice David Gendall to order two reports by health assessors to gauge Henry’s risk of further serious offending, so that preventive detention could be considered at his sentencing.
Justice Gendall remanded 43-year-old Henry in custody for sentencing on July 27. He asked for a pre-sentence report and the two reports by health assessors – usually a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
He also gave Henry a warning as a second strike offender. The system means that Henry will serve the sentence imposed this time without parole or early release.
The jury found Henry not guilty on two charges of rape and two charges of assault.
The trial was told that he had met the woman through an online dating site.
The Crown case was that she had been detained, assaulted by choking, and raped during a weekend in September 2016, as well as earlier assaults and a rape. He was found not guilty of the earlier rape.
Defence counsel Josh Lucas accused the woman of telling an “evolving” story, including sending one of the crucial texts herself. The Crown emphasised that text for the kidnapping charge, on which Henry was convicted.
Henry remained calm as the verdicts were delivered and when he was remanded for sentence.
The post Preventive detention to be considered after rape verdicts appeared first on Courtnews.co.nz.