Home invader had no mercy

Nine years after committing his first rape at 16, Tai Rangi Tarawa is a "master of home invasion."

His blitz-attack techniques were outlined in the High Court at Auckland on Friday, where he was sentenced over five separate incidents.

His record shows he was jailed for two home invasions in 1991, during which he raped one of his victims.

He also viciously attacked Danish tourist Paul Lyngbye in Queen St in January 1997, for which last year he was jailed for 31/2 years.

Crown prosecutor Gina de Graaff told Justice Chambers: "In my submission he is now a confident and professional rapist. He is a master of home invasion and intimidation of his victims, preferring to target elderly people and women living alone."

Tarawa, now aged 25, was sentenced to preventive detention, after admitting 15 charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, being an accessory after the fact, demanding with menaces, indecent assault, rape, unlawful sexual connection, burglary and aggravated burglary.

Justice Chambers said that if he had imposed a finite prison term, Tarawa would have received 15 or 16 years.

Tarawa's lawyer, Roy Wade, conceded that the offences were horrifying, but said Tarawa was remorseful.

But Gina de Graaff said Tarawa had made previous claims of remorse, and the judge said that in a letter the defendant sent him there was not a word of repentance.

Three of the attacks occurred while Tarawa was on bail awaiting trial for robbing the Danish tourist.

As a result of DNA taken from him after his conviction for robbing the Dane, Tarawa was identified as the person who burst into a Ponsonby woman's home and raped her.

Gina de Graaff said that the Ponsonby attack in March 1996 displayed predatory conduct, as Tarawa had lain in wait for his victim after spying on her.

He rushed at the 42-year-old woman in a "blitz attack" when she opened her door to investigate a noise late at night. He got her to sign a note consenting to sex before subjecting her to "chillingly demeaning" acts.

In August that year, Tarawa and an accomplice with a pistol burst into the Greenlane home of a Hong Kong couple who thought they would be killed. They escaped, but have left New Zealand for good.

In January last year, he acted as getaway driver when an accomplice brutally robbed a 76-year-old woman as she left a bank in Henderson.

The following month he drove around the Kaukapakapa area looking for a house to burgle and spent time watching a property where a 57-year-old woman was alone.

Armed with a knife, he demanded her credit cards and Pin number. He then made her strip before tying her up.

But when he went off to search the rest of the house, the naked woman fled, screaming, and flagged down a motorist.

The judge said there was no letup in Tarawa's offending, which continued until he was caught, and a pre-sentencing report noted that there was a high degree of planning and stalking behaviour.