A violent Samoan sex predator who raped a woman at knifepoint in an Auckland park as she walked home from her 21st birthday party with her boyfriend was sentenced to just two years, two months and one week in prison.
Peter Kosetatino was 17 when he dragged his victim into the bushes at Albert Park and raped her while his friend, 15, restrained her partner. The November 2022 attack came five days after he robbed two men in the same spot in the centre of New Zealand‘s biggest city.
The rapist began serving his prison sentence five months ago but could not be named until today, due to simultaneous appeals by the prosecution that the sentence was “manifestly inadequate” and the defence demanding permanent name suppression and home detention, the New Zealand Herald reported.
The defence bids were later dropped, but Crown prosecutor Zoe Hamill told the Auckland High Court on Monday that the District Court should have imposed an end sentence of at least three years and 11 months.
Kosetatino’s defence lawyer Sacha Norrie submitted a new psychological report which she claimed showed her client gave differing accounts of his past and a lack of insight into his offending because of his “exceptionally poor” English and “low to average” Samoan communication skills.
Judge Peter Andrew reserved his decision, but unless he increases the sentence before June Kosetatino will likely be able to start applying for parole, since one-third of his jail term will be up.
District Court Judge Claire Ryan last year described the rape as “despicable and disgusting” and said it was “terrifying” for the victim, but despite the woman’s pleas for harsh treatment she settled on the final sentence due to Kosetatino’s youth, guilty pleas, lack of prior convictions and “exemplary” rehabilitation efforts.
The court heard that the teenagers threatened to stab the young couple with knives as they walked home through the park at 1am, forcing them to lie on the ground.
Kosetatino then took the woman by the arm and raped her. When she returned with him she tried to negotiate for her and her boyfriend’s release by offering a bank transfer, but the Samoan thug put his knife to the young man’s throat and said “shut the fuck up or I’ll kill you”.
“This has destroyed me,” the rape victim said to Kosetatino at his trial.
“The worst part for me is the nightmares. I wake up drenched in sweat every night.
“I’ve endured more pain than you can imagine.”
The case comes just weeks after another teenage rapist was spared jail entirely and told to pay each of his three victims $1,000 instead by a judge in New Zealand’s Youth Court.
