By Eugene Bingham and Paula Penfold, 3D Investigates producer and reporter
Fresh evidence against Malcolm Rewa uncovered by 3D Investigates should be enough to warrant police investigating the unsolved murder of Susan Burdett, says a former detective.
"There's no doubt that Susan's rape and murder needs to be looked at again, afresh," says Tim McKinnel, the private investigator who exposed the miscarriage of justice against Teina Pora, the man wrongly convicted of her murder.
"She deserves that, her family deserves that, I think wider society deserves that, but at the moment we have the people with the power refusing to acknowledge the necessity for the case to be reopened and it's unacceptable."
3D Investigates last night revealed information from two witnesses implicating Rewa in the murder, and today can reveal details of a document listing 16 reasons Rewa is the likely killer.
"The attack, rape and killing of Susan Burdett … bear all the hallmarks and style of [Rewa] employing his developed and tested methods and manner of offending," says the document, a submission by the Crown to the High Court in 1998.
While the Crown is now not currently interested in pursuing Rewa for murder, the document obtained by 3D Investigates from the High Court shows the lengths they went to in 1998 to secure a conviction.
Prosecutor Paul Davison, QC, listed 16 features of other attacks carried out by Rewa, which bore similarities to the Burdett attack.
These included:
Mr Davison described this evidence, known as "similar fact evidence", as having a high "probative value".
New evidence places Rewa at crime scene
Rewa was convicted of sex attacks against 25 women, including the rape of Ms Burdett in her Papatoetoe home in 1992. But two juries failed to agree on whether he also murdered her.
Mr Pora was found guilty of the murder in 1994, but his convictions were quashed by the Privy Council in March after it accepted evidence his confessions could not be relied upon because he had foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
In April, Police Commissioner Mike Bush told 3 News the Burdett case would not be re-opened.
"Absolutely Susan Burdett deserves justice," said Bush. "But my point is that if we had fresh evidence, which would enable a fresh investigation we would pursue it. But we don't have that fresh evidence."
3D Investigates last night revealed that a woman who lived across the road from Ms Burdett and knew Rewa saw him in the driveway of her house on his own on the night of the murder. She is adamant that she told police at the time, but she was never called to give evidence about it.
It is the first time an eyewitnesses has placed Rewa at the scene of the crime.
The programme also screened an interview with a member of Rewa's family who said he recognised the bat found on Ms Burdett's bed as one that belonged to Rewa. He also said he told police this after Rewa's arrest but was never called to give evidence about it.
The police have previously said the bat belonged to Ms Burdett and was one she kept for self-defence.
But the new evidence is, of course, not all that points towards Rewa being involved.
As the Privy Council said in its Pora decision in March: "The man who raped Ms Burdett was undoubtedly Malcolm Rewa. That she was killed at the time she was raped is not open to doubt."
Following the second trial in 1998, the Solicitor-General imposed a stay of proceedings so Rewa would not be prosecuted a third time. But that can be lifted if there are "exceptional circumstances".
Mr Pora's legal team has argued that the Privy Council's decision qualifies as exceptional circumstances and that the new evidence should be enough for the police to take a fresh look at the case.
3 News
