KEY POINTS:
One of two Northland men accused of kidnapping and robbing two Dutch honeymooners and raping the woman has admitted his part in the offences.
Keith Anthony McEwen, 30, unemployed, of no fixed address, entered guilty pleas to 12 charges in the Kaikohe District Court yesterday.
There are two
kidnapping charges, two of robbery, one of rape, one of attempting to stupefy the woman, five of sexual violation and one of unlawfully using a cash card. One of the sexual violation charges involves sodomy.
The robbery charges, one relating to each complainant, involve a single barrelled 12-gauge shotgun.
McEwen was expressionless as he pleaded guilty in a near-empty court.
All charges follow an incident in which the two young tourists, travelling in New Zealand after marrying in Holland, were accosted in their campervan at Haruru Falls, near Paihia, last November 10.
Two armed men, one of them McEwen, drove the couple around central Northland for some hours before leaving them and their campervan abandoned on the roadside at Towai, 20km south of Kawakawa, in the early hours of November 11.
After an intensive investigation, police arrested McEwen and another man, Christopher Mana Manuel, 27, of Dargaville, at separate rural locations in central Northland on November 21.
But in court yesterday, a 13-page police summary of facts accompanying McEwen's guilty pleas was suppressed after an application by police prosecutor Kim Thomas.
Mr Thomas offered Judge Anne Kiernan two grounds for suppressing the summary of facts.
Judge Kiernan made an interim order suppressing all facts in the summary until the matter is argued further in the Kaikohe court on Thursday.
She also suppressed the reasons for suppressing the summary.
Suppression of names and any details leading to the identification of the two young victims was also continued.
McEwen also admitted five unrelated charges, including stealing copper piping from Kawau Island last year, two charges of unlawfully entering premises, stealing $80 cash and a breach of parole in 2005.
He was remanded in custody for sentencing on all charges on April 19.
Manuel, who appeared in court with McEwen yesterday, faces the same 12 joint charges but has entered nopleas.
He was remanded in custody until Thursday for another pre-depositions hearing.
The Dutch couple have stayed in New Zealand, supported by mid-North Victim Support and Kaikohe police staff, but have spent much of that time away from Northland.
They were not in court yesterday.
