Napier man facing multiple sex charges

Rape and abduction accused Trevor Eagle made a near-record short appearance in court yesterday, facing 11 charges from the ordeal of a woman forced from her Napier home and violated in a forest 60km away on Tuesday. Eagle, 31, of Napier, listed on court documents as unemployed and of no fixed abode, stood in the Napier District Court for less than half-a-minute as duty solicitor Derek Quilliam sought a remand without pleas.
An emotionally charged scene greeted Eagle as he arrived at the court escorted by two detectives in the back of a patrol car.
A young woman, believed to be the accused's niece, cried and screamed as the vehicle drove past, repeatedly yelling "Why did you do it?"
There was no application for bail and neither Mr Quilliam nor police prosecutor Sergeant Graeme Webster made any application for extension of an interim name suppression order made in Whakatane just 24 hours earlier.
Eagle, arrested with the victim's car when stopped by police between Whakatane and Opotiki on Thursday morning and charged then with unlawfully taking the vehicle, now also faces one charge of rape, one of abduction, six of sexual violation, one of indecent assault and one of aggravated burglary.
The charges were not read to the court, and Eagle, driven from Whakatane to Napier by police yesterday, was remanded by Judge Tony Adeane in continued custody to appear in court in Napier again on Wednesday.
Eagle allegedly entered the home of a woman in Napier on Tuesday morning, forcing her out at knifepoint, and taking her in her own car to a remote forest north of Te Pohue to subject her to a sex attack lasting several hours.
The woman escaped by fleeing into the bush as the offender, a known user of "P" in recent days, tired and fell asleep. She hid through the night, emerging after daybreak and waving down logging truck driver Doug Broughton of Rotorua.
Outside court yesterday, Mr Quilliam said that in his brief meeting witgh Eagle, no details of the case had been discussed.
Eagle had not at that stage been formally interviewed by police, and the lawyer did not immediately know whether he would be retained to represent him.
But Mr Quilliam said his immediate concern was to determine whether the accused was fit to plead to the charges. Mr Quilliam said Eagle may have been under the influence of "P" at the time the abduction took place. He said Eagle had been "very melancholy, downcast and feeling very sorry for himself".
"It's possible that matters may be resolved next Wednesday."
There was no emotion from either the accused or the public gallery during the appearance, after which Eagle was taken immediately from the building, while the court resumed normal business.
Police said the woman at the centre of the incident was lucky to be alive after she was abducted from her home at knifepoint on Tuesday morning and kept against her will by her alleged attacker for hours, during which she was repeatedly sexually attacked.
She managed to escape and fled, barely clothed, and hid in the bush for eight hours.
The following morning she walked barefoot for nearly three hours along a road before flagging down Mr Broughton, who took her to a nearby house, from where the police were called.
The woman was treated in hospital before being released.