NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Steve Braunias at the Malcolm Rewa trial: Case snaps to its conclusion

Steve Braunias
By Steve Braunias
Senior Writer·NZ Herald·
20 Feb, 2019 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Malcolm Rewa in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Pool video

Malcolm Rewa in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Pool video

A fine film of sawdust, like sea spray, wafted in the gracious foyers of the High Court of Auckland yesterday morning. Workmen are slowly going about creating new offices on the ground floor.

Now and then someone will pick up a power drill and make it scream, and occasionally there is the lazy tok-tok-tok of a hammer. Further inside the courthouse, in courtroom seven, another sound could be heard on another slow project: the snap of ringbinders, signalling that an end was nigh in the latest and possibly last saga in the long, sad case of the murder of Susan Burdett.

Burdett was raped and killed in her home in Papatoetoe in March 1992. Malcolm Rewa has sat in the High Court this past fortnight to plead not guilty to her murder. The prosecution wrapped its case on Friday; the defence rested yesterday morning.

Few professionals in New Zealand charge more to snap shut their ringbinders than lawyers and they went at it with great aplomb in courtroom seven after Justice Venning confirmed to the jury that all the evidence in the criminal file CRI-1997-404-198997 had been heard.

Only the closing addresses remain, and the judge's summing up. Next month, March 23, will mark the 27th anniversary – it hardly seems proper to use that happy word to mark such a brutal and horrible event – of Burdett's killing. She was bashed to death by some kind of maniac too low or afraid to ever confess.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In those 27 years, Teina Pora was found guilty, twice, of her murder, and jailed for 22 years, until his conviction was exposed as a gross travesty; and two juries were unable to reach a verdict when Rewa was charged with her murder, in two trials held in 1998. Wanted, after 27 years: one maniac to be held responsible.

"You killed your mother," Rewa's lawyer, Paul Chambers, accused Burdett's son, Dallas McKay. "Nah mate," said the son.

"There were other people involved!" Rewa stated, in Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes' cross-examination. Unfortunately he wasn't given the opportunity to tell the court who these other people were or the extent of their involvement. Perhaps Chambers will illuminate the jury on this small matter during his closing address.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Chambers called Burdett's best friend, Winsome Ansty, to give evidence yesterday. She told the court that she thought she remembered Burdett telling her she was in a secret relationship with a Māori man affiliated with gangs and drugs and who went by the name "Mike".

The descriptions match Rewa, who claims he was Burdett's lover, a romantic who gazed at sunsets with her on top of Māngere Mountain, not her murderer, not some maniac swinging a baseball bat and raping his victim.

In cross-examination, it was revealed that Burdett's friend only remembered all of this in 2012.

Twenty years after the murder. Twenty years after she first spoke to police. "Memories come," she said, "and memories go."

But some memories remain. Throughout the trial, witnesses talked fondly of a woman who loved tenpin bowling, who prided herself on a tidy home, who was straight-up, who wasn't any kind of pushover, who baked things like chocolate slices and bright-eyed Susans ("It's a biscuit rolled in egg white and coconut, and you put jam in it," a policewoman helpfully explained in court), who had leftover fudge in her car to take to work when she parked in the garage of her home 27 years ago on Monday night, March 22, 1992. Susan Burdett was 39.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand|crime

'Please do not do it': Man inflected intense pain on woman during violation

04 Jul 08:00 AM
New Zealand|crime

'Couldn't even walk': Hospo staff foil legless drunk driver who blew six times legal limit

04 Jul 07:20 AM
Wellington

'Amazing woman': Kiwi killed by elephant remembered as adventurous traveller

04 Jul 06:53 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

'Please do not do it': Man inflected intense pain on woman during violation

'Please do not do it': Man inflected intense pain on woman during violation

04 Jul 08:00 AM

Judge Tompkins said Michael Mead, 64, posed a 'very high risk' in the future.

'Couldn't even walk': Hospo staff foil legless drunk driver who blew six times legal limit

'Couldn't even walk': Hospo staff foil legless drunk driver who blew six times legal limit

04 Jul 07:20 AM
'Amazing woman': Kiwi killed by elephant remembered as adventurous traveller

'Amazing woman': Kiwi killed by elephant remembered as adventurous traveller

04 Jul 06:53 AM
Royal NZ Air Force establishes first dedicated space unit

Royal NZ Air Force establishes first dedicated space unit

04 Jul 06:24 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP