Real estate agent describes kidnap ordeal

A Wairarapa real estate agent feared she would die when a man posing as a potential buyer throttled her.

"I thought at the time someone was going to find my body on that floor and my kids wouldn't have a mum any more," Kelly McIsaac said last night.

"He was on top with his arms around my throat, I couldn't breathe...I thought I was going to die."

Ms McIsaac was speaking on TV One's Closeup about the incident last August that saw Nigel Craig Whakarau, 39, unemployed and of no fixed abode, plead guilty to three charges when he appeared in the High Court at Wellington yesterday.

And the programme revealed that Whakarau's attack on Ms McIsaac was not his first.

In 1996 he was jailed for kidnapping Taranaki businessman Roy King and subjecting him to a terrifying 12-hour ride locked in the boot of his car.

In his latest attack, last August 2, Whakarau arranged a private viewing at an isolated, vacant property about 15 minutes from Carterton, the police summary of facts before the court said.

He grabbed Ms McIsaac from behind as she showed him around, putting his arm around her throat and pushing her to the ground.

Whakarau then straddled her and squeezed her neck until she started to lose consciousness.

"I just couldn't believe what was happening to me," she said.

"When he first grabbed me he smacked my head against the tiles two or three times. I think he was trying to knock me out."

Whakarau took his arm away and told her he just wanted her money and she should stop fighting.

Using duct tape, Whakarau taped Ms McIsaac's hands behind her back, taped her mouth, and left the house to move his vehicle closer.

While he was gone, she managed to get the tape off her hands and locked the door.

However, Whakarau saw what was happening as she ran to lock another door and got there first, stopping her from closing it.

He grabbed her and pulled her outside, dragging her by her clothes towards his vehicle and threatening her with a knife.

Ms McIsaac said the worst moment came as he began pushing her head-first into the boot, she saw a screwdriver and jemmy bar on the floor and grabbed them, swinging them behind her in his direction.

She stabbed him several times and, when he let go of her, she ran to the house and locked herself inside.

Whakarau approached the house and asked her to let him in so he could wipe away his fingerprints. She refused.

He eventually left, telling her if she told anyone what had happened he would hurt her and her family.

After waiting to check he was not coming back, Ms McIsaac ran to a neighbour, who called the police.

Whakarau was picked up by police later that day and initially claimed Ms McIsaac attacked him and he had had to fight her off.

He was charged with confining, or kidnapping, Ms McIsaac, assaulting her while having a knife and robbing her while possessing an offensive instrument, which was tape.

Justice Forrie Miller remanded Whakarau in custody until June 19 for sentencing, pending a pre-sentence report and two health reports.

The Crown was seeking a sentence of preventive detention, he said.

Whakarau's earlier victim told the programme he was not surprised to hear that his assailant "had done it again".

Mr King, of Kaponga in South Taranaki, said Whakarau was waiting for him when he got home one night at Easter, 1996.

"I walked up the stairs as usual and unlocked the door when he took me around the neck," Mr King said.

He was pulled to the ground and his arms and legs tied.

About 5am, Whakarau put Mr King in boot of his own car and set off on a 700km trip around the North Island.

He told Mr King he wanted to keep him in the boot for four days so he could draw the daily money machine limit of $500 from his account.

Mr King's ordeal ended when a Napier police officer pulled the car over and freed him.

- NZPA