'Everything changed': Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa sentenced over 1988 attack

Malcolm Rewa has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for the rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1988, nearly 38 years after the attack.

At the High Court in Auckland today, the victim read an emotional victim impact statement describing the trauma she has lived with since she was attacked as a teenager.

Rewa, now 73, kept his head bowed throughout the statement and continued looking down as Justice Simon Mount delivered his sentencing remarks.

“Everything changed that fateful night,” the woman told the court.

“I lost part of myself that night, and I’ll never get that back. He stole my confidence, joy, and ripped away my dignity and sense of self.”

She said for 37 years she did not know who attacked her, and had replayed that night “over and over and over” in her mind, trying to work out who was responsible.

“All I had was a voice,” she said.

The woman told the court the physical injuries were immediate, including bruises, cuts, scars around her neck and a missing tooth, but said the deeper harm lasted far longer.

“The world no longer felt safe,” she said.

She described living in fear, becoming constantly on guard, and carrying the burden of the attack for decades while no one was held accountable.

“37 years on, and I finally know who attacked me that night. Finally, I have someone to blame instead of myself.”

Justice Mount said the accountability that comes from the court process would “hopefully give the victim something”, but said she would also be “perfectly entitled to consider it too little and far too late”.

He told the court it was “to her credit, and unfortunately no credit to the authorities” that it was TM’s own initiative that led to the prosecution.

The judge said the woman contacted police in 2025 to ask whether medical swabs taken after the rape still existed, and whether they had ever been compared against the DNA databank. Police later located the swabs and matched the DNA to Rewa.

The court heard the rape happened on June 18, 1988, after the victim left an 18th birthday party for some fresh air.

Rewa, who was a stranger to her, approached from behind, wrapped a rope around her neck until she lost consciousness, dragged her away, tied her hands, gagged her, and raped her.

Justice Mount described it as an “extremely serious offence” with several aggravating features, including the victim’s age, the level of violence, the humiliation involved, premeditation, and the lasting harm caused.

In determining the sentence, Justice Mount adopted a starting point of 10 years’ imprisonment.

The Crown had argued for a starting point of 10 to 12 years, while the defence submitted eight to nine years was appropriate.

The judge said the victim was particularly vulnerable, noting she had been rendered unconscious, restrained, was significantly younger than Rewa, and suffered injuries including the loss of a tooth.

A 25% discount was applied for Rewa’s early guilty plea, which spared the victim from giving evidence at trial.

However, that was offset by an uplift of two and a half years to reflect Rewa’s extensive criminal history.

Justice Mount said it would be “unrealistic” to ignore the pattern of offending that followed, describing a clear trend of serious sexual violence.

The court heard Rewa has 37 relevant convictions, including the murder of Susan Burdett, 29 rape convictions, three attempted rapes, assaults with intent to commit sexual violation, and abduction offences.

The judge said there were no personal mitigating factors in Rewa’s favour, noting he had made no effort to make amends and remained at high risk of reoffending.

In contrast to another serial offender referenced in court, who showed genuine remorse and insight, Justice Mount said the same could not be said for Rewa.

“You must have known you committed this rape when you came before the courts in the 1990s,” the judge said.

“It would have been to your considerable credit, and would have saved the victim from years of harm, if you had taken that approach.”

Justice Mount said the case required careful consideration of the totality principle, given the offending could have been sentenced alongside Rewa’s earlier convictions in the 1990s.

At that time, Rewa was sentenced to preventive detention for dozens of sexual offences and later to life imprisonment for the murder of Burdett.

The judge said if this rape had been dealt with at the same time, it likely would not have materially changed the overall sentence.

However, he rejected a defence submission that no further penalty should be imposed.

Instead, the court found the appropriate outcome was to impose a finite sentence that would extend Rewa’s parole eligibility.

Rewa is currently eligible to apply for parole in February 2027. The additional sentence means he will not be eligible to apply again for more than three years.

Justice Mount said that amounted to an effective additional non-parole period of about two and a half years, bringing his total time before parole eligibility to around 33 years and three months.

“There is no guarantee you will ever get parole,” the judge said.

“But I accept that adding time to your parole eligibility date is a real consequence.”

He said the sentence was proportionate in the unusual circumstances of the case and did not offend the totality principle.

The judge also noted provisions under the Parole Act could, in theory, allow for earlier consideration in exceptional circumstances, given Rewa’s age, but said he had no information to assess whether that would apply.