Former partner tells court of ‘master plan’
A murder accused’s former partner has told a court about the final days and death of Hastings man Johnny Wright, before a “master plan” to hide the alleged killing from police.
Steven Tiwini Rakuraku, 39, is facing 12 charges, including the alleged kidnapping and murder of Mr Wright, 50, who disappeared on June 21, 2011.
Rakuraku denies all the charges against him as he faces a jury trial at the Napier High Court.
His 40-year-old former partner continued her evidence yesterday and recalled the death of Mr Wright.
She said the Hastings man was kept in “complete darkness” by Rakuraku at a Caroline Rd flat, which was accessible only by a hole in the wall.
She said Rakuraku used a taiaha (Maori war weapon) to beat Mr Wright until it “snapped into two” from “pelting Johnny” and while crying in the witness box, she remembered saying to him: “I’ll try get us out of here.”
The 40-year-old said she last saw Mr Wright alive in the back yard of the flat, his health deteriorating to the point he couldn’t talk.
“The look in his eyes, I could tell he was really hurting. His eyes just said it all. He really needed medical attention.”
She said she woke early the next morning to Rakuraku insisting they return some library books.
“As I lay there in the bed, Mr Rakuraku went through the hole [in the wall]. I heard him yelling at Johnny ‘get up, get up’.”
“All I heard was a big thud and it was just complete silence after that.”
She said after leaving the flat to return the library books and go shopping at Countdown, the pair sat down for breakfast at the flat.
She said Rakuraku went to check on Mr Wright and uttered: “I think Johnny’s dead.”
The 40-year-old said she entered the room where the Hastings man was being kept through the hole in the wall to discover a grim scene.
“Johnny was slouched on the couch with his head back and his eyes open, looking towards the ceiling.”
She said Mr Wright was “pale blue”, cold to touch and she placed her right ear against his mouth to find he wasn’t breathing.
“I was shocked, in disbelief. I was afraid of how Mr Rakuraku would react to me and it was just a slow realisation of what had happened, seeing Johnny dead.”
She said Rakuraku wanted the two to go for a bike ride and “clear his head” before deciding what to do.
Rakuraku then contacted his uncle in Flaxmere and borrowed his truck to move Mr Wright’s body, she said.
“We grabbed the blankets Johnny used to sleep in and placed them on the floor . . . Mr Rakuraku rolled Johnny up like rolling up a Persian rug.”
The 40-year-old told the court she drove the couple north, under Rakuraku’s direction, before reaching the Napier-Taupo road and turning off onto a cycle trail.
“We pulled over to the side of the road. I was told to wait in the vehicle while Mr Rakuraku carried Johnny . . . and buried his body.”
Later, she said Rakuraku forced her to bleach the flat where Mr Wright had died.
“We were pouring bleach onto the blood stains on the floor, the blood splatters around the toilet.”
She said the couple then painted over the blood stains in a bid to hide the evidence.
In an attempt to cover his tracks, Rakuraku then “trained” her and devised a “master plan” for when the police came looking for Mr Wright, she said.
“He would get me to sit in the chair with [him] sitting opposite to me and would be telling me how to sit, when to answer his questions, what to expect in the interrogation process,” she said. “He came up with the idea of Johnny trying to rape me and that Mr Rakuraku had caught Johnny attempting to try and rape and murder me.”
On July 13, 2011, the woman’s birthday, she said she managed to escape the “manic” Rakuraku from a Napier house.
“I ran straight out the front door, down the road . . . yelling out for help.”
She said after being given shelter by a man she was cared for by Woman’s Refuge and eventually taken to a police station.
The 40-year-old said she spent the next “week or two” in a mental unit before being interviewed by police about Mr Wright’s disappearance several times but continued to stick to the story Rakuraku had trained her to tell.
Approached again by a detective on August 26, 2011, she finally “told the truth” about what had happened to Mr Wright and where his body lay.
“I couldn’t handle that Johnny was out there and he had a family that wanted him back.”
Late in the afternoon, during the woman’s cross examination by amicus curiae (friend of the court) Russell Fairbrother QC, it was revealed police had allegedly performed covert operations as they sought information about Mr Wright’s disappearance before the 40-year-old “came clean”.
Mr Fairbrother questioned the woman about a friend named “Bella Roberts” who he said was in fact an undercover police operative.
Rakuraku’s former partner said she had come to know a woman named Bella while living at a set of flats following the ordeal.
Mr Fairbother said Bella Roberts had befriended the 40- year- old to record their conversations for the police. He added another detective had led the woman to believe he was Mr Wright’s lawyer.
Rakuraku’s partner is expected to continue to give evidence under crossexamination today as the trial continues.