Earlier: More than 20 years since he last faced trial over the killing, Malcolm Rewa walked into an Auckland courtroom today with his shoulders hunched and a ring hanging from his neck. For the third time the rapist stands before a jury accused of murdering Susan Burdett.
More than 20 years since he last faced trial over the killing, Malcolm Rewa walked into an Auckland courtroom today with his shoulders hunched and a ring hanging from his neck.
For the third time the rapist stands before a jury accused of murdering Susan Burdett.
The now elderly man,wearing a green shirt tucked into grey sweatpants, was likely recognised by "a number if not all" of the prospective jurors standing patiently in the public gallery, Justice Geoffrey Venning said.
Some would also recall Burdett's name, the Chief High Court Judge added.
"Many of you may have made a connection between them and Teina Pora," he continued, talking about the high-profile nature of the case.
Malcolm Rewa sitting in the dock at the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig
Justice Venning told the jury there had been "a lot of publicity about the facts around this case".
"But whatever you may have read, seen or heard about the killing of Ms Burdett, or Mr Rewa or Mr Pora before today you must put aside."
He told the 12 jurors the trial "has some unusual features" with the Crown attempting to show the now 65-year-old Rewa's "pattern of conduct" when carrying out sexual attacks on women.
On the night of the Monday before Burdett's body was found her neighbour also recalled hearing a "thudding sound".
Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes. Photo / Michael Craig
That neighbour, Winifred O'Sullivan, told the court today she "heard a louder bang followed by quite a few softer bangs".
"It sounded like something quite heavy being knocked against a wall," she said. "It wasn't like someone had a hammer and was hammering against a nail, it was quite different."
The two groups of sounds were divided by a couple of minutes, O'Sullivan added.
She went to investigate but noticed no lights were on at Burdett's home so she went back to bed.
The next day, however, O'Sullivan noticed Burdett's windows were unusually closed and the rubbish bin wasn't out as it normally would be on a Tuesday morning.
Burdett, a keen tenpin bowler, had a "scrupulous work record", Kayes said. So when the accounts clerk failed to show at work her workmates contacted friends to see if she was okay.
When one friend went to her home he noticed the blinds on the bedroom window were drawn, Kayes explained.
He entered the home and walked down the hallway - then he came across Burdett's body.
Malcolm Rewa has past convictions for several historical rapes. Photo / File
In front of her, almost parallel, was a baseball bat she would keep nearby for protection, Kayes told the court.
Brain matter and a significant amount of blood was on the sheets, while a bra covered Burdett's eyes, he said.
The prosecutor said forensic evidence concluded Burdett had been hit across the head at least five times by a blunt instrument - such as a baseball bat.
A stay of proceedings for a murder prosecution against Rewa was applied by the Solicitor-General in 1998, but in 2017 the Deputy Solicitor-General, on behalf of the Attorney-General, reversed the stay.
Teina Pora was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of Susan Burdett. Photo / Nick Reed
Justice Venning also earlier dismissed an application to stay the murder charge against Rewa, who has convictions for raping several other women in the 1990s and is currently serving a preventive detention prison sentence.
