Auckland murderer Malcolm Rewa, NZ’s most notorious rapist, sentenced after new crime emerges
April 16, 2026
Malcolm Rewa was confronted in court by a woman who was 16 when he targeted her in 1988.
Malcolm Rewa, one of New Zealand's most prolific sex offenders and a convicted murderer, has received an additional 10-year prison sentence for a rape committed nearly four decades ago. The sentence, handed down in the High Court at Auckland, is the result of a cold case being solved thanks to the perseverance of the victim and the power of modern DNA technology. The historical crime occurred in June 1988 when Rewa, who was a stranger to the victim, attacked a 16-year-old girl in Onehunga. He choked her with a rope until she lost consciousness, restrained her, and then raped her before fleeing the scene. For 37 years, the attacker's identity remained a mystery to the survivor.
The breakthrough in the case came in 2025 when the victim contacted police to inquire if the medical swabs taken after the assault still existed and if they could be tested against the national DNA databank, which was not available at the time of the attack. Police located the preserved evidence, and the subsequent analysis produced a definitive match to Rewa. Now 73, Rewa pleaded guilty to the sexual violation charge earlier this year. During the sentencing, Justice Simon Mount acknowledged the extreme violence and lasting harm caused by the attack. The judge applied a discount for the guilty plea but added an uplift to the sentence to reflect Rewa's extensive and violent criminal history, which now includes 37 relevant convictions.
This new conviction adds another layer to Rewa's notorious criminal profile. He is already serving a life sentence for the 1992 murder of Susan Burdett and a concurrent sentence of preventive detention with a 22-year non-parole period for attacks on 25 other women. The murder of Burdett, who was bludgeoned to death in her home, became one of the country's most prominent miscarriages of justice. Another man, Teina Pora, was wrongfully convicted for the murder in 1994 and spent two decades in prison based on a false confession he made as a teenager.
While Rewa was convicted of raping Burdett in 1999 after his DNA was found at the scene, two separate juries failed to reach a verdict on the murder charge. This was largely because Pora was still imprisoned for the same crime. Following years of legal battles and a campaign by supporters who believed in his innocence, Pora's conviction was finally quashed by the Privy Council in 2015, and he received a government apology and compensation. With Pora exonerated, the Crown pursued a third murder trial against Rewa, who was finally found guilty of murdering Susan Burdett in 2019.
The latest sentence will have a direct impact on Rewa's future behind bars. He was due to become eligible for parole in February 2027, but the 10-year sentence effectively extends his non-parole period by approximately two and a half years. In his sentencing remarks, Justice Mount noted that there is no guarantee Rewa will ever be granted parole. Following this latest conviction, police have initiated a project to re-examine other unsolved rape complaints from the late 1980s, acknowledging that a 2006 report suggested Rewa could be responsible for up to 26 additional sexual attacks.
Source: nzherald