Malcolm Rewa says he was in a secret sexual relationship with Susan Burdett but the prosecutor says Rewa is lying in an effort explain how his DNA was found at the crime scene.
On the seventh day of Malcolm Rewa's third trial he took the stand as a witness to testify in his own defence over the killing of Susan Burdett.
He claims he was in a secret sexual relationship with her but the prosecutor says Rewa is lying in an effort explainhow his DNA was found at the crime scene.
The 65-year-old serial rapist was convicted of Burdett's rape in 1998 - but two juries that year were unable to decide whether he was also responsible for her death.
Today, he walked past the press bench from the dock with the help of his cane. He was wearing a white, collarless long-sleeve shirt and sporting a new haircut.
While serving a preventive detention sentence for his several rape convictions, Rewa explained he had found Christ after "such a harsh, possibly nasty life".
"I walked the Christian walk," he said of his past 23 years in prison.
"It taught me a different way of life - to be accepting. I accepted people for who they were. I learnt to understand, I learnt empathy.
"In prison you get all walks of life - some of the crimes are worse than others - but unless it's against you, you accept them for who they are, not what they've done."
When his lawyer Paul Chambers asked him about his rape convictions, Rewa said he felt "terrible shame".
"I can understand the hurt that I put on these women," he said.
Malcolm Rewa has sat in the dock with his head bowed for much of the trial. Photo / Michael Craig
But, Rewa added, he could also understand the lack of forgiveness from his victims.
"It wasn't something that they could accept, not after what I'd done to them.
"I would never ask them to do that, I can never imagine any one of them forgiving me for what I've done."
Rewa said he had also struggled to forgive himself.
"I never had the strength to do that, I've never had the strength to forgive myself for what I've done.
"You can't forget things like that, that's something that's there all the time ... Every time it's put up on TV I feel the shame of it."
But Rewa said he believed he was now a changed man.
"All the years I've been coming to court for this, you know this is my third trial ... Nobody ever asked me about the friendship we had. All they were worried about was finding someone to blame for the murder. She wasn't just Susan Burdett, she was my friend too."
However, under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes referred to the transcript of Rewa's second trial and said then prosecutor and now High Court judge Simon Moore had asked: "Was it a relationship you valued?"
Susan Burdett was killed in her Auckland home in 1992. Photo / File
Kayes then accused Rewa of fabricating a relationship with Burdett.
"Was there a relationship?" The Crown lawyer asked.
Rewa replied: "Yes there was."
"That's a lie isn't it Mr Rewa?" Kayes replied sharply.
Burdett's killing, Kayes alleged, displayed a "striking resemblance" to Rewa's other sexual assaults.
Teina Pora was twice wrongly convicted for murdering Burdett on the back of a false confession.
He was arrested as a 17-year-old and spent 22 years in prison before the Privy Council quashed his conviction in 2015.
He has since received an apology from the Government and $3.5 million in compensation.
A stay of proceedings for a murder prosecution against Rewa was applied by the Solicitor-General in 1998, but two years ago the Deputy Solicitor-General reversed the stay thus allowing the current trial.
A stay had never before been lifted in New Zealand's legal history.
