Another Campsite Rape

Sources: Voxy NZ, Stuff

In what is getting to be a rather common occurrence in New Zealand another tourist has been sexually assaulted at a campsite in the country.

A 22 year old Dutch visitor was raped and her partner robbed at knife point whilst sleeping in their car at the Five Mountains Holiday Park in Tuatapere, west of Invercargill, South Island.

A 25-year-old man has been arrested.

Campground owners Zane and Tina Barrett said they were "absolutely devastated" by the attack and would close at the end of March.

The attacker, who is said to be known to Mr and Mrs Barrett,was reported by his mother when she recognised a tea towel and filleting knife used in the attack and shown in news reports.

Update

25 year old Maakiti Joseph Tipene was later sentenced to 10 years prison with a minimum of 7 years non parole for rape, three charges of sexual violation, two of unlawful detention, two of threatening to kill and one charge of burglary.

Tipene was something of a 'career criminal'.

According to the Sensible Sentencing Trust's offender database he

"Unlawfully detained and threatened to kill a Dutch couple in Tuatapere, Southland in January 2009, and repeated sexual violation and rape of the woman

Alarmingly lengthy list of past convictions including, drink driving, dangerous driving, failing to stop, driving while disqualified, driving while forbidden, substantial cheque and credit card fraud, burglary, receiving stolen goods, theft of a shop till, theft of food, theft of beer, theft of a chequebook, theft of fuel containers, theft of a car stereo, car conversion, burglary, possession of cannabis, disorderly behaviour, disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence, and other charges intentional damage etc etc "

Ten years would seem to be a very lenient sentence under the circumstances, this man could be released back into the community to continue where he left off when he is just 32.

Violent and sexual assaults on visitors to NZ are occurring far more frequently in recent years, this blog has reported some of the cases please see link: violence against tourists

Visitors to the country are well advised to exercise every precaution to safeguard their personal safety, as they would do in any other international location, and not be lulled into a false sense of security by accepting assurances that NZ is a "safe country" with low rates of crime.

The exact opposite is true - NZ has one of the highest reported crime rates in the world, see link: World Crime Rates

Click on map to enlarge

Violent crime on the increase

Police crime statistics (see link) show that in the year 2007-2008 there were 58,761 cases of violent crime, an increase of 11% on the previous year.

There were also a 3,542 reports of sex crimes, 2,364 of which were sexual attacks.