An addict and a cop combined to jail a rapist
The unlikely bond that formed between a drug addict and a police officer saw ‘‘rinse rapist’’ Thomas Kawiti jailed for almost seven years. Michelle Duff finds out how two women put judgment aside to see justice served.
On the day he was due to be sentenced for her rape, she wore bright red lipstick. Her hair was tied back in a braid, and the faux-gold buttons of her cobalt-blue military style jacket shone. She sat at the back of the court, folded one leg over the other, and waited.
That day in earlyNovember, all she could see of the man who raped her was his back as he stood in the dock in front of her.
Thomas Kawiti, 37, would be jailed for six years and eight months for her rape, but not that day. His lawyer Craig Tuck asked for another month, so a presentencing report could be prepared. Outside the courtroom, Detective Jocelyn Bell was livid. ‘‘He did that on purpose,’’ she fumed.
Melanie, whose real name Stuff is not using to protect her identity, was nonplussed. It had been three years since she had walked into Wellington Central police station with her underwear in a plastic bag, and reported the rape. It was the second trial she had been through; in the first, in August 2019, the jury couldn’t decide if he was guilty. Shewas used to waiting.
Melanie almost didn’t report the rape. In her circles, police are mud. When Kawiti was finally jailed this week, Melanie nearly missed it because her phone was dead and the person she was with wouldn’t let her use her phone to text Bell, a police officer, for a ride.
‘‘F... the police, you know?’’ she says. ‘‘They’re a no-go area.’’
Melanie is a low-level criminal herself, with convictions for drugs and petty theft. Her partner was on ‘‘home d’’ that night in August 2017, when she, a friend and Kawiti – who they had met hours before – decided to drive to an abandoned, fire-damaged flat to see what they could glean. Melanie, who loves fashion – Bell likes to describe her as a ‘‘magpie’’ – had her eye on a chest of drawers.
Inside, the drug she had taken began to take effect. GBL is more often referred to by its street name, rinse, and in popular culture as roofies, or a date-rape drug. The
Detective Jocelyn Bell, pictured in 2007.
depressant was originally used as an anaesthetic and can induce sleepiness and blackouts when it kicks in, typically after about 20 minutes. Melaniewas relatively new to the drug.
Kawitiwas sober. When he realised he and a semi-paralytic Melanie were alone, he took her to a couch and raped her. Shewas conscious, but couldn’tmove. He left.
In the morning, Melanie thought about it. She knew she couldmete out some form of justice. But she knewmen this had happened to, and they didn’t stop. She thought about all the girls she would have to warn about him, and the ones she wouldn’t be able to. She thought about how women are always blamed for this stuff. Melanie found herself thinking he deserved more than a hiding. She wanted him behind bars.
‘‘I know people who have victimised women and they tell someone tough and get their ear cut off or something and that doesn’t stop them, theywill continue to reoffend. And the more they get away with it, the more they feel like they can do it,’’ she says.
‘‘I thought this is something the police have to know about, out of respect for myself and my relationship. It was wrong. I spoke to my best friend and my partner, and we decided thatwas the only option. This was 100 per cent wholeheartedly a rape, and that is not okay.’’
Aweek after Melanie reported her rape, another woman reported her alleged rape by Kawiti to Hutt Valley police. The circumstances were startlingly similar. Bell found out about the second case, and had it transferred. When she flew to Tauranga to arrest Kawiti, it was on two counts of rape.
Kawiti, it turns out, was wanted on other charges and had already served jail time as the ‘‘Kaimai kidnapper,’’ under the name Thomas McDonald, after an incident in 2013 where he assaulted and kidnapped a man who had hit and killed a teenager in a road accident.
The first trial did not go smoothly. Witnesses included a patched gang member and several drug addicts who were not always reliable with dates and times. The Crownwas often forced to put witnesses on the stand in the order they turned up, which made for a confusing narrative.
But Melanie and the other alleged victim, who we will call Ana, didn’twant to give up. ‘‘It doesn’tmatter to me how long it takes, whatmatters is there’s justice,’’ Melanie says.
The retrial was more coherent. Melanie found it hard sometimes standing up to Tuck, but said she found power in truth. ‘‘He did everything he could to discredit us as people, but I knewwhat had happened.’’
Bell, a straight-shooting detective of 10 years, says she is just doing her job. Everyone has a right to justice, no matter where they are from or who they are, she says. She always believedMelanie, who she says is extraordinary both in her unwavering faith in herself, and her bravery in stickingwith the case through all its iterations. ‘‘I think she’s very intelligent, unfortunately she’s got into drugs and that’s given her a lifestyle that’s different than mine.
‘‘While it has sometimes been hard to contact her, she’s never wavered, she’s always been firm in her resolution to see it through, which is challenging. It’s a long process, it takes a long time and a lot of people do give up.’’ Bellwas only sorry the jury had not found in favour of the other alleged victim, Ana.
On the day he is jailed for her rape, Melanie, now 27, wears black boots and a chunky belt. Afterwards, she is quietly happy.
‘‘Even though it’s been three years, I’d do it again. It’s been rewarding and Jocelyn has always believed in me.
‘‘He took away a chunk of my life, and now I get to take away some of his. It might give other males that do this kind of offending the idea that not everyone will stay quiet.’’
She says she is not using as much; once amonth, instead of once a day. She wants tomend her relationship with her mother, who she has distanced herself from since the rape because, she says; ‘‘I didn’twant to pull her intomy sadness.’’ She thinks she might start studying, find her way back into the professional career she once had.
She feels like her life has been on hold but now, she says, she wants to get better. Starting today.