Chance and tenacity get elder Mikus behind bars

By PHIL TAYLOR

The past caught up with an old man last week and the public got to learn a little more about why Teresa Cormack died.

On Wednesday, Jules Gyula Mikus, 75, was convicted of raping a primary schoolteacher who boarded with him in 1976.

It was "absolute chance" he was charged with the offences. The complainant, who lives overseas, mentioned the name of her rapist to her sister while on a visit home.

It rang alarm bells and they soon established that he was the father of Jules Pierre Mikus, convicted in 2002 of the rape and murder of the 6-year-old Napier schoolgirl.

They also learned Mikus snr was facing 13 charges - including rape, sodomy and indecent assault - for alleged offences against two girls in the 1960s and 1970s.

One of those girls alleged she was violated from the age of 4 until she became pregnant at age 14 to Mikus snr.

The complainant in last week's case, in the High Court at Rotorua, said she believed the girls because of her own experience with Mikus snr.

"I never doubted them for one second. I thought that, maybe, by telling the police about what happened to me, I could support their case and support them," she told the Herald.

"I had no idea I would be making a case myself or going to court."

As it eventuated, hers were the only charges to go before a jury.

The girls' case was botched. The police failed to eliminate Mikus jnr as the father of the 14-year-old's baby.

DNA tests showed the baby was 1.3 million times more likely to have been fathered by Mikus snr than any unrelated male but he claimed his son was the father.

The judge told police that without eliminating the possibility the son was the abuser, the DNA was not a "smoking gun".

Police then approached Mikus jnr who provided a blood sample which eliminated him as the father. But the judge told police it was too late and was not new evidence but information which was obtainable had police used "modest diligence".

The woman who gave birth to Mikus snr's child was devastated. It was the third time she had complained to police of his abuse. No record of her complaint in 1974 appears to have been kept; the file from her complaint in 1994 was lost.

The complainant in last week's case said she went through with it - taking unpaid leave, travelling from overseas and putting up with attempts by the defence to impugn her character - in part for the other complainants.

"It was 27 years ago and I'd got on with my life ... but I couldn't believe he'd got off the charges regarding the two girls.

"I thought, 'he's like Teflon'. I think everyone who lives their life like that should be held accountable no matter how late."

She was 20, and in her second year as a teacher. Mikus had been living alone for more than a year after his wife walked out on him.

Soon after she moved in, he pinned her to the couch and raped her. When he finished, he wept and pleaded with her not to tell, she told the court.

Mikus came to New Zealand with a group of Hungarian refugees in 1957. Born in France, he came as the fiance of Maria Rozsas, and appears to have failed to declare to immigration officials that he was already married to a woman in France.

He married Ms Rozsas and was later convicted of bigamy.

Ms Rozsas told the Herald she believes Mikus snr has also fathered children to a woman in Hungary.

She welcomed his conviction.

"He ripped all of our lives off ... He was a very clever, crying liar, always.

"I will feel better if I hear he gets jail. I don't care how old he is, he has to pay."

Mikus snr will be sentenced next month.