Police move may lead to third trial for Rewa
The Solicitor-general is applying to lift the stay of proceedings against serial rapist Malcolm Rewa, paving the way for him to be prosecuted for Susan Burdett’s murder.
The announcement was made by police yesterday, two years after Teina Pora was freed from prison having wrongfully served 22 years for Burdett’s murder.
If the application is granted, the police would be free to charge Rewa with murder.
The announcement has thrilled Pora’s supporters, including his legal team, as well as Rewa’s other rape victims.
Private investigator Tim Mckinnel, whose investigation into the prosecution led to the Privy Council overturning Pora’s murder conviction, said it was ‘‘very, very pleasing’’.
The application is being managed by the Crown solicitor at Manukau, who will also handle the prosecution if the application is granted.
Previously Police Commissioner Mike Bush has said there was no new evidence against Rewa, barring any possibility that he could be tried for the murder.
Rewa is serving a lengthy sentence for sex attacks against 25 women during a nine-year period from 1987 to 1996, including Burdett’s rape.
The accounts clerk was killed in her Papatoetoe home on March 23, 1992.
Teina Pora – then just 17 – made a false confession to her murder.
A miscarriage of justice was declared by the Privy Council and he was freed in 2015 following a dogged investigation by private investigator Tim Mckinnel.
Yesterday Mckinnel said he was pleased with the development.
‘‘It’s very, very pleasing, the announcement from the police. It’s a positive development and suggests the police are finally, after all these years, looking at Susan Burdett’s murder with fresh and objective eyes.’’
He said he was on the ‘‘periphery’’ of the police’s application but that he would ‘‘absolutely’’ offer information to police if a prosecution were to go ahead.
‘‘We’ve made it very clear to police that we have a substantial amount of information that we’ve collected over the last nine years and we’d be very happy to share it with them.’’
Pora made the confession to police after reward money was promised in return for information, despite him being able to give no accurate details about how Burdett was killed.
The Privy Council later heard evidence that Pora had Foetal Alcohol Syndrome which made his confession unsafe.
Rewa was a rapist known to work alone.
Last year the Government agreed to pay Pora $2.5 million in compensation and police made a formal apology for deficiencies in its original investigation.
Also last year three women who were raped by Rewa called on the police to initiate a prosecution for the murder.
Although Rewa was convicted of Burdett’s rape based on DNA left at the scene, there were two hung juries over the murder charge.
After Rewa’s second trial in 1998, the Solicitor-general imposed a stay of proceedings against further prosecution and it was said only special circumstances would warrant a third trial.
Burdett’s brother, Jim Burdett, declined to comment.
A team of senior and experienced homicide detectives under the oversight of Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch have commenced preparation work on the file, and will work with the Manukau Crown Solicitor to make the application in the High Court and manage the case through to a third trial if one is granted.