DNA match nabs NZ rapist 15 years after horrific attack

A masked man who forced his way into a Kaitaia home in New Zealand and raped a woman as her children slept nearby in 2003 has been brought to justice 15 years later ‑ after police identified him through his DNA following a second sexual assault.

And his victim has spoken out about the "sheer terror" she felt when the stranger invaded her home and threatened to hurt her children if she did not submit to his sexual demands.

The NZ Herald reports that 43-year-old Wiremu Abraham was jailed for eight years and one month in the Manukau District Court yesterday.

The man had brought a condom with him and wore it as he raped the woman. The court heard that the woman found the used condom which then contained Abraham's DNA.

She went to the police and reported the rape but despite extensive investigations over the years and the DNA profile, her attacker was never identified.

In 2018 Abraham was charged with indecently assaulting a woman he knew.

Police took a DNA sample from him, and when it was added to their database, they got a match to the 2003 cold case.