Rewa told date for third murder trial
Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa has appeared in court following the Crown’s announcement last month he was again going to be prosecuted for the murder of Susan Burdett.
Rewa appeared in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, where an eight-week trial was set down to begin in February 2019.
Burdett, an accounts clerk, was brutally killed and raped in her Papatoetoe home in March 1992.
Rewa was convicted of Burdett’s rape based on DNA left at the scene, but there were two hung juries over the murder charge.
It was the Crown’s case that he and Teina Pora - then just 17 - had worked together.
Pora made a false confession to police stating he had killed Burdett.
He was convicted and served 22 years for her murder.
His conviction was later quashed by the Privy Council, which found a miscarriage of justice had occurred.
Pora, who has fetal alcohol syndrome, made the confession after reward money was promised in return for information, despite him being able to give no accurate details about how Burdett was killed.
After Rewa’s second trial in 1998, the Solicitor-General imposed a stay of proceedings against further prosecution, saying only special circumstances would warrant a third trial.
Last month, the Crown announced it was going to apply to lift the stay of proceedings and prosecute Rewa for a third time.
Rewa is currently serving a sentence of preventive detention.