Judge Stephen O'Driscoll yesterday sentenced Matthew Guy MacLaurin (26) to seven and a-half years in prison for the rape in July 2009.
At the sentencing, Judge O'Driscoll urged students living in the North Dunedin student area to take care of their security and themselves.
There were people who targeted the open and relaxed environment of the student quarter, he said.
MacLaurin, after drinking at a North Dunedin tavern, entered several student flats uninterrupted, burgling them, sometimes walking straight into bedrooms, and sometimes striking up conversations with the occupants.
"I suspect he was able to do so because of the relaxed and open environment," the judge said, before expressing the hope students in the area would "learn from this experience".
Dunedin police welcomed the comments, saying they had tried for years to impress upon students the importance of security.
Improving security was as simple as locking doors and closing windows, Inspector Alastair Dickie said.
There was "quite a large montage of criminals" who moved around and targeted the student quarter. Unlocked student flats were "basically drop-in centres" for them.
He did not know what it would take to get the message through.
"We've tried all sorts of initiatives, but if [students] aren't prepared to heed the warnings and become security conscious, we are just banging our heads against a wall."
Otago University Students' Association president Harriet Geoghegan said the open and relaxed atmosphere in North Dunedin was something many students enjoyed.
"It is a real shame and awful that someone could take advantage of it like that."
There had always been security issues in Dunedin student flats with people constantly coming and going, but she also urged landlords to respond more quickly to requests for flat improvements.
"I remember once we went two weeks without a front door - we put a bookcase over it - while the landlord tried to find a cheaper door."
She would be heeding Judge O'Driscoll's warning.
"This is a really awful wake-up call for us all."
University of Otago student services director David Richardson said the student area was a safe place to live most of the time, but the incident was a timely reminder that unlocked or unsecured student flats could prove easy targets for determined criminals.
