'You murdered your mother': Malcolm Rewa's lawyer accuses Susan Burdett's son

Malcolm Rewa's four-week murder trial has entered its second day, and on Tuesday morning the jury heard evidence from Susan Burdett's son Dallas McKay.

Mr McKay told the court he met his birth mother when he was 20, after being raised by his paternal grandparents after she gave birth to him at 16.

Just two years after he met her, his mother was raped and killed in her home.

Malcolm Rewa is being tried for Ms Burdett's alleged 1992 murder for the third time, after two other juries failed to find him guilty. 

Rewa was convicted of Ms Burdett's rape in 1998.

The court heard that the relationship between Mr McKay's girlfriend and Ms Burdett became tense after Mr McKay spent more and more time in Auckland with his mother.

Defence lawyer Paul Chambers argued Mr McKay "had a lot to gain and not much to lose" by his mother dying.

"The stress of the relationship between you and her ended," he said.

"You received a quarter of a million dollars and there were no more impediments to starting up relationship with your girlfriend again. You had everything to gain."

"What are you saying I did?" Mr McKay asked Chambers.

"You murdered your mother," the defence lawyer replied, to which Mr McKay said he had it "completely wrong".

The jury has also begun to hear evidence from a number of Rewa's rape victims.

The judge told them the purpose of hearing it was to determine whether there was a pattern of behaviour that matched what had happened to Ms Burdett.

In one victim's statement, the woman recalls looking up at Rewa who struck her, saying "don't look at me I'll kill you, don't look at me, I'll hurt you".

In another statement, a victim recalls being hit in the jaw and told to shut up by Rewa, before he raped her.

A further victim statement says Rewa entered the woman's home, attacked, blindfolded and gagged her, and then raped her.

Newshub.

Contact Newshub with your story tips:
news@newshub.co.nz