A rapist who rang a victim from prison pretending to be her psychiatrist to try to get her to change her story has been given a further jail sentence, though it won't affect how long he spends in prison.
Pravin Fia Hari Prasad Kumar was sentenced to three years for attempting to pervert the course of justice over the phone calls.
He made the calls to try to help his appeal against his conviction for the rape, kidnap and indecent assault of a young woman with schizophrenia, Fairfax reported.
However, the three-year jail sentence won't change how long he spends behind bars as he was already sentenced to preventive detention, which means he is jailed indefinitely.
Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock told NZ Newswire the judge could not make the sentence on the charge Kumar faced on Thursday cumulative on his existing term.
"The only thing that could happen here was a concurrent term."
Kumar, who had a history of violence and assaulting women before his 2009 conviction, would call his mother and have her divert calls to phone numbers not approved by the prison.
He got hold of his victim's number and then pressured her to say her court evidence was a lie and she hadn't been raped.
Justice Geoffrey Venning said Kumar was clearly not remorseful and that his actions further abused his victims.
NZN
