{"id":421830,"date":"2026-05-11T06:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/421830\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T06:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:17:08","slug":"northland-killer-dog-owner-abel-wira-added-to-child-sex-offender-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/421830\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland killer dog owner Abel Wira added to child sex offender register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mauled to death<\/p>\n

In 2022, Wira came to house-sit Thomson\u2019s home in Panguru <\/a>while his landlord was in the South Island and brought with him 23 dogs: six adults and 17 puppies.<\/p>\n

When Thomson returned, Wira stayed on with his pets, which he kept confined in a caravan, sometimes unfed for days.<\/p>\n

On the morning of August 4, 2022, Wira was out running errands while Thomson<\/a> was home on the phone to his partner.<\/p>\n

The dogs, which had not been fed in two days, escaped from the caravan and mauled Thomson to death.<\/p>\n

Wira received a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence<\/a> in October for that offending.<\/p>\n

Sexual offending<\/p>\n

While that case was moving through the courts, another was on foot in the Kaikohe District Court.<\/p>\n

In January this year, Wira went to trial on several historical charges of male rapes female under the age of 12 and unlawful sexual connection.<\/p>\n

The jury acquitted him of all but one unlawful sexual connection of a child, during which he made a child perform a sexual act on him. <\/p>\n

The victim alleged it happened on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n

It is the second time Wira has come before the courts for sexual offending. He has already served a sentence for raping a teenage hitchhiker in 2003<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The teen had been hitchhiking near Springs Flat, just north of Kamo, to Kerikeri when she accepted a ride from Wira.<\/p>\n

During the trip north the woman fell asleep and Wira drove to a remote location and locked the car doors when she tried to get out.<\/p>\n

When the woman realised she could not protect herself against his strength, she pretended to be unconscious.<\/p>\n

Wira then raped her.<\/p>\n

She was able to escape and flag down a passing motorist after Wira stopped in Hikurangi.<\/p>\n

For that crime, he was jailed for six years.<\/p>\n

\u2018This is all Mr Wira\u2019s doing\u2019<\/p>\n

At his recent sentencing in the Whang\u0101rei District Court, Judge Greg Davis commended the latest victim for having the courage to come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of what has happened has anything to do with you. This is all Mr Wira\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Davis said that since Wira offended against the woman she had been physically and mentally \u201con the run\u201d.<\/p>\n

Crown lawyer Richard Annandale said after Wira was released from prison for his prior bad behaviour, he went on to offend against a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe general proposition I make is the community should see such a picture. That is, a man who has been imprisoned for a long time, being released on parole and then offending against a [child],\u201d Annandale said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, Mr Wira hasn\u2019t stopped offending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wira\u2019s lawyer, Mathew Ridgley, said the assessment of his end sentence needed to be against his current sentence for manslaughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was eligible for parole at the time of the manslaughter sentence,\u201d Ridgley submitted.<\/p>\n

Judge Davis sentenced Wira to six years\u2019 imprisonment, cumulative to the sentence he is currently serving.<\/p>\n

He was also added to the child sex offender register and will be required to go before the Parole Board for release.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mauled to death In 2022, Wira came to house-sit Thomson\u2019s home in Panguru while his landlord was in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[40546,1903,27309,1763,2511,1968,9219,14235,111,43,139,1067,69,17699,2738,6289,32536,7680,17703,544,1961,61,96,1455,64868],"class_list":["post-421830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abel","tag-abuse","tag-added","tag-article","tag-child","tag-discusses","tag-dog","tag-killer","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-offender","tag-owner","tag-readers","tag-register","tag-sex","tag-sexual","tag-some","tag-this","tag-to","tag-upsetting","tag-warning","tag-wira"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421830","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=421830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}