3 News is promising revealtions on Malcolm Rewa tonight on 3D (6.30pm). They are promoting the news in advance:
Malcolm Rewa family member: ‘We know what went down
A member of Malcolm Rewa’s family has come forward with new evidence against him in the unsolved Susan Burdett murder case.
He has told 3D Investigates he is prepared to testify against Rewa in any fresh prosecution.
“I would give evidence,” the man told the programme. “We know what went down and how it happened.”
3D Investigates will tonight reveal fresh information about Rewa’s involvement in the 1992 rape and murder of Burdett in her Papatoetoe home.
The family member, one of two witnesses with new details, says he wants to apologise to the Burdett family.
“I apologise for what has happened. They lost a loved one and I wouldn’t like it to happen to my family. And I don’t mind helping the family.
“I should’ve been a man enough way back and come forward.”
Yes, he should have been man enough way back. But better very late than never.
Rewa, jailed in 1998 for attacks against 25 women, faced two trials for murdering Burdett. He was convicted of raping her, but neither jury could agree on whether he was guilty of murder.
The complicating factor in the Rewa case was that another man, Teina Pora, had previously been found guilty of killing her.
Pora spent twenty years in Paremoremo prison. Possibly because one or more people remained silent. Until now perhaps.
UPDATE after 3D screened – two pieces of information.
Susan Burdett murder: Witness saw Malcolm Rewa on the night
A witness who lived in a house just down the road from Ms Burdett at the time of the murder saw Rewa parked in his truck in her driveway on his own on that night, and that evidence has never been heard.
She says she opened the curtain on the night of the murder and saw Rewa parked in his truck in her driveway, on his own, with nobody else around.
Up till now, there has only been physical evidence – DNA of semen – connecting Rewa with Ms Burdett. There were no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses, and Rewa claimed in his defence that he was at home on the night.
So to now have an eyewitness who saw him in Ms Burdett’s street, on his own, without Mr Pora, is a breakthrough.
And:
In video the police took in 1992 at the scene of the crime, a bat can be seen on Ms Burdett’s bed. The prosecution has previously said the bat belonged to her.
“Yeah the old baseball bat,” says Mr Manapiri, “I first saw that when I come back from Australia.”
“[Rewa] had a Holden, and he took me up to Ruakaka on it – him and his daughter – and I seen that baseball bat quite often … it’s the old colour of the old baseball bat what he used to carry.
“That’s the one. And I seen it quite often. He used to carry it in his van and stuff like that too.
“He used to beat his dogs and he was in the gang, and I suppose that was his weapon.
“I’m telling you that’s his bat left at the scene and, you know, that shows that he did it.”
Mr Manapiri says he told the police at the time. He can even describe the policeman he spoke to, but it never appears in any of the police records
This looks like significant new evidence that may justify re-opening the case.
It also raises concernes that the Police may not have recorded important information given to them during the investigation.
