Horror scream from cemetery

Neighbours of the cemetery where a Danish tourist was allegedly raped recalled hearing ‘‘blood-curdling screams’’ around the time of the attack.

Police said the 24-year-old woman was picked up while hitch-hiking on Hamilton’s outskirts on Thursday before being driven to a cemetery near Hikutaia, about 80 kilometres away, where she was allegedly raped. The young, visibly upset backpacker was found wandering on a Waikato farm about 1pm and police were called.

Chris Cook was at home on his farm along State Highway 26 and though he did not see the woman, he described hearing one loud scream, prompting him to walk to the bottom of his driveway to inspect his surroundings.

‘‘I stood down there for about half an hour, thinking maybe it came from one of the houses. I kept waiting but nothing happened,’’ he said.

‘‘After a while I thought I might not have heard anything after all.’’

Nicky Healy, who also lives at the address, said she and Cook were not aware an attack had occurred until a visit by a Stuff reporter.

She wondered if the offender knew the area. ‘‘If you did not know about that cemetery, you would not know it was there. Unfortunately, it is kind of the perfect place to do something like that. I won’t look at it [the cemetery] the same way.’’

Detective Senior Sergeant Will Loughrin said a man was arrested within an hour by two young police officers who were proactively patrolling the area.

They stopped a car matching the description they were given and managed to identify the alleged offender from the vehicle stop.

Loughrin said this was critical to get a quick resolution to ‘‘a really horrific thing that has happened to the victim’’.

A 50-year-old man was charged with rape and appeared in Hamilton District Court yesterday.

He was remanded in custody and given interim name suppression until he next appears next month.

One of the residents who owns the farmland surrounding the cemetery said his family also did not see or hear anything. The family said it was terrible to have been so close to the attack but not have known anything about it.

The man, who did not want his name used, said the Omahu Cemetery, in Wharepoa Rd, was not usually a sinister place. ‘‘There were two cops up there yesterday but we could not work out what was going on.’’

The Hauraki Rail Trail runs below the cemetery and yesterday cyclists could be seen cruising along in the heat.

The cemetery itself sits atop a quiet hill, with noises from the state highway below echoing up the hillside.