6 Aug 2018

Malcolm Rewa to be retried - High Court

2:47 pm on 6 August 2018

Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa's last-ditch bid to avoid a third trial for murder has been rejected by the High Court.

Malcolm Rewa in the dock at the High Court in Auckland in December 2017.

Malcolm Rewa in the dock at the High Court in Auckland in December 2017. Photo: RNZ / Edward Gay

Chief High Court judge Justice Venning released his decision today, saying it was in the interests of justice that the trial proceed.

The reasons for the decision were not released to the media.

This will be Rewa's third trial for the murder of Ms Burdett who was found raped and bludgeoned to death in her South Auckland home in 1992.

Rewa is currently serving preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years for rape and other offending against 25 women. Two juries were unable to reach verdicts on whether Rewa also murdered Ms Burdett.

Today much was also made of a recent TVNZ dramatisation of Teina Pora's life that included an actor playing Malcolm Rewa.

At a hearing last month, Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes said the programme was obviously not a documentary and the makers had used artistic licence.

He had been told TVNZ intended on making the programme unavailable online six months before the trial, he said.

He also argued that if hate preacher Abu Hamza - the radical one-eyed Egyptian cleric who gave fiery sermons in London and was jailed for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred - could get a fair trial, then so could Rewa.

He also pointed to John Barlow who faced three trials for the murders of Wellington businessmen Gene and Eugene Thomas.

Mr Kayes said the courts had found juries could ignore publicity and decide the case only on the evidence presented in the court room.

However, Rewa's lawyer Paul Chambers said his client could not get a fair trial. Mr Chambers described the media coverage as "cancerous".

Mr Chambers argued extensive media coverage of his client and his case had contaminated the jury pool.

He said there was widespread coverage of the Privy Council's finding that quashed Teina Pora's convictions, Mr Pora's bid for compensation and a review of the police's handling of their investigation of Rewa.

However, the Crown pointed to overseas examples and cases closer to home where juries have been able to reach verdicts, despite widespread media publicity.

Jurors will have a conscious or subconscious bias against his client, he said.

He said it had gone beyond the point where a judge's direction to jurors to ignore their past knowledge of the case would ensure Rewa gets a fair trial.

Mr Chambers said the TVNZ programme had reached an audience of 240,000 and more had watched it online.

Rewa is due to stand trial for murder in February next year.

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