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Offender Databases Taerata Turahui

Taerata Daniel Turahui

Alias

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Offences

Broke into the home of a 73 year old Eltham woman in June 2009 and raped her
Also pleaded guilty to five charges of sexual violation and one of burglary.

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1992

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 12 years with a 8 year minimum non-parole period in September 2009

Background
NZ Herald story here
Taranaki Daily News story 8th July 2009
The teenager accused of raping a 73-year-old Eltham woman has admitted the charge. Eltham labourer Taerata Daniel Turahui, 17, has also pleaded guilty to five charges of sexual violation and one of burglary.

In the Hawera District Court yesterday five other charges, including assault with intent to sexually violate and indecent assault, were withdrawn. Turahui stood in the dock with his back towards the public gallery, where some members of the victim's family were seated, while police prosecutor Mark Wilton read the summary of facts.

Between 3.30am and 5.30am on June 19, Turahui forced open a window at the victim's home. She was asleep but woke up because of the noise made by the defendant and got up to see what was going on. She told Turahui to get out of the house but he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back into the bedroom, Mr Wilton said. He pushed her to the floor, had his arm on her throat making it hard to breathe and covered her mouth and eyes.

She tried to fight him off and "he told her it would be easier for her to not resist", Mr Wilton said. Turahui forced the victim on to her bed and although she tried to push him off he was too strong. He demanded she take off her pyjama pants. Turahui struck the victim around the head and face and indecently assaulted her.

Mr Wilton said that at one point during the prolonged attack, the victim had tried to push her knees into Turahui's chest to push him off, before she was raped. The victim was pushed on to the floor and Turahui threw blankets and a mattress on top so she couldn't get up and call for help. He then demanded money and took her purse.

"The victim has been left extremely traumatised," Mr Wilton said. She had cuts, bruises and tenderness to her chest and ribs. Police recovered the wallet and, when spoken to, Turahui admitted what he had done. "In explanation he said he was very drunk and didn't know why he did it," Mr Wilton said. "He said he was sorry."

Police opposed bail but Turahui's lawyer Turitea Bolstad said she would not be making an application for bail but asked for a full pre-sentence report. He was convicted by Judge Paul Barber and remanded in custody for sentencing on August 31.

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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