KEY POINTS:
A foster brother of one of two men accused of the kidnap, robbery and rape of a young Dutch couple in Northland is deeply sorry for what happened to the tourists.
"Everyone's devastated for them," dairy sharemilker Stan Clifford said outside Kaikohe District Court yesterday .
"It's a
tragedy. But I can't really say any more than what the rest of the country is already offering," said Mr Clifford after his foster brother, Keith Anthony McEwen, and Christopher Mana Manuel appeared on joint charges relating to the November 10 attack.
McEwen, 29, unemployed, of no fixed abode, and Manuel, 27, of Dargaville, were making their second court appearance on seven joint charges of kidnap, rape, sexual violation, stupefying and aggravated robbery.
They were remanded in custody without plea to appear again on December 20.
An interim order suppressing their names was lifted yesterday by Judge Michael Lance, as was an earlier ban on publication or broadcast of pictures and images of the men.
The judge said there was "intense public interest" in the case and the interim orders expired yesterday anyway.
He had no doubt the media should have the opportunity of fully covering McEwen and Manuel's appearance in court yesterday but reminded them that the presumption of innocence (of the defendants) still applied.
The newlywed tourists were not at the court hearing yesterday.
It is alleged they were accosted by two armed men in their campervan in the car park at Haruru Falls, near Paihia in the Bay of Islands, before being taken on a five-hour drive around central Northland.
Charges now before the court relate to alleged offences said to have occurred during this time and before the couple and their van were left abandoned by their captors at Towai, 20km south of Kawakawa.
The defendants face two charges that they robbed the young man and woman of their bankcards while armed with a single barrel shotgun.
Other joint charges involve sexual violation of the woman by unlawful sexual connection, detaining her without consent with intent to have sex, detaining the man without his consent, sexual violation of the woman by rape and stupefying her.
The stupefaction charge relates to an intent to facilitate the crime of sexual connection against the young woman complainant, but police will not say how she may have been stupefied.
McEwen and Manuel, both earlier described as transients, were arrested separately in central Northland on November 21 as a result of what police said was a combination of information from the public, security camera footage from town centres, forensic testing and police team legwork.
Outside the court, Mr Clifford, from Okaihau just north of Kaikohe, said he had not seen his foster brother since McEwen was arrested.
He said before his family took McEwen in when they lived in Moerewa, McEwen had been brought up in hostels and "tossed around from home to home".
"I've always been there for him," he said, and would continue to support him.
Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Inspector Mike Pannett, said yesterday the newlyweds were remaining with the mid-North Victim Support group which was co-ordinating the couple's care.
The tourists were working with Victim Support staff while they stayed in "an undisclosed location" in Northland in the expectation that they would have to give evidence at some time during the current court process, Mr Pannett said.
A depositions, or preliminary, hearing against the two accused is not expected to proceed until next year.
