{"id":28623,"date":"2025-09-17T23:43:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/28623\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T23:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:43:06","slug":"how-a-rotorua-man-snatched-a-3-year-old-from-enclosed-yard-at-early-childhood-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/28623\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Rotorua man snatched a 3-year-old from enclosed yard at early childhood centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 3-year-old<\/a> was at the centre on March 10 when Tekuru, who did not know her but lived nearby, approached the property about 9.30am, the summary said.<\/p>\n

Tekuru was wearing gumboots, a backpack, trackpants and a large jacket.<\/p>\n

He climbed on top of the 2 metre boundary fence. <\/p>\n

The summary said he perched on top of the fence under shrubs and looked into the centre\u2019s grounds for about a minute before climbing back down the fence and wandering away.<\/p>\n

CCTV footage showed he returned to the fence at 9.39am, climbed over and entered the centre\u2019s grounds.<\/p>\n

He went to the sandpit area near where children were playing in the yard and grabbed a ball and threw it over the fence, before jumping back over. <\/p>\n

Under the cover of shrubs, he removed his gumboots, backpack, jacket and trackpants.<\/p>\n

He loitered by the fence, occasionally peeping over it into the centre yard and continuing to look around behind him.<\/p>\n

After several minutes, he climbed over the fence again. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ministry of Justice unsuccessfully sought funding in Budget 2025 for its PPP courthouse project to replace courts in Rotorua, pictured, and Auckland. (Image: NZME)<\/p>\n

He picked up the 3-year-old girl playing in the yard and carried her to the fence in an area covered by shrubbery, and dropped her over. <\/p>\n

CCTV footage showed Tekuru climbed back over the fence and dropped down next to the girl at 10.47am.<\/p>\n

Carrying the girl, he headed towards his home.<\/p>\n

The girl started to cry, causing Tekuru concern her noise would draw attention, so he changed direction.<\/p>\n

He let her go after she began crying hysterically, the summary said.<\/p>\n

The girl ran back to the centre where she was discovered at the gate by staff at 10.49am – two minutes after she was taken.<\/p>\n

Tekuru went to his house and was arrested by police that day.<\/p>\n

Tekuru admitted to police what happened and told police in a recorded interview he took the girl with the motivation to rape her at his home.<\/p>\n

The summary said Tekuru has no previous convictions. <\/p>\n

Police have asked the court to add him to the Child Sex Offender Government Agency Registration at sentening.<\/p>\n

He has been remanded in custody to reappear for sentencing on January 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.<\/p>\n

Kelly Makiha<\/a> is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 3-year-old was at the centre on March 10 when Tekuru, who did not know her but lived…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28210,1763,1975,1550,6184,4058,9539,8912,2245,28211,71,221,5158,111,43,139,69,1327,23784,1961,1455,28212],"class_list":["post-28623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-3yearold","tag-article","tag-at","tag-centre","tag-childhood","tag-contains","tag-content","tag-distressing","tag-early","tag-enclosed","tag-from","tag-how","tag-man","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rotorua","tag-snatched","tag-this","tag-warning","tag-yard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}