Blessie Gotingco killer loses appeal

Stuff reports:

The man who ran down then stabbed and raped Blessie Gotingco has failed in his appeal against his sentence.

Tony Robertson was convicted and sentenced last year for the 2014 murder and rape of Gotingco.

​He had only just finished an eight-year sentence for sexual offending against a five-year-old girl when he killed the 56-year-old mother-of-three in May 2014.

He was still on GPS surveillance as part of his prison release conditions at the time.

For the rape he was sentenced to preventive detention and for the murder he was sentenced to life, with a minimum non-parole period of 24 years.

Good – may he never be released.

He appealed on multiple grounds – the most disgusting being he couldn’t have raped her as she was dead when he did, so it wasn’t rape!

One of interest to me is:

Suppression issues about his prior offending: The details of his sexual offending against a child was withheld from the jury, but he argued they may have found out anyway.

The Police thought he would try this line at appeal, so they worked hard to prevent any chance it could succeed.

I blogged a couple of years ago that the person arrested for the murder was well known to the Police. This was not in breach of any laws at the time it was made, or later. However the Police rang me up (given me a minor panic as I was on holiday and got a message to call back Waitakere Police) and asked if I would consider removing it, as they said he may point to it (if convicted) and use as grounds for appeal. They said I had no legal obligation to do so, but of course I was happy to comply.

Looks like they knew their man well, as he did try.