By Shannon Pitman, Open Justice reporter<\/p>\n
WARNING: This article discusses sexual abuse and may be upsetting to some readers.<\/p>\n
A man who once raped a teenage hitchhiker and more recently owned a pack of starving dogs that killed someone has now been convicted for sexually abusing a child.<\/p>\n
It is the latest in a string of offences for Far North man Abel Wira who was recently\u00a0jailed for the manslaughter\u00a0of Panguru man Neville Thomson after that fatal dog mauling.<\/p>\n
It was the first time anyone in New Zealand has been charged with manslaughter as the owner of dogs who attacked a person resulting in death.<\/p>\n
Mauled to death<\/p>\n
In 2022, Wira came to house-sit Thomson’s home in Panguru 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 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 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.<\/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
‘This is all Mr Wira’s doing’<\/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
“None of what has happened has anything to do with you. This is all Mr Wira’s doing.”<\/p>\n
Judge Davis said that since Wira offended against the woman she had been physically and mentally “on the run”.<\/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
“The 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],” Annandale said.<\/p>\n
“In the meantime, Mr Wira hasn’t stopped offending.”<\/p>\n
Wira’s lawyer, Mathew Ridgley, said the assessment of his end sentence needed to be against his current sentence for manslaughter.<\/p>\n
“He was eligible for parole at the time of the manslaughter sentence,” Ridgley submitted.<\/p>\n
Judge Davis sentenced Wira to six years’ 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
Where to get help:<\/p>\n
NZ Police.<\/p>\n
Victim Support\u00a00800 842 846.<\/p>\n
Rape Crisis: 0800 88 33 00.<\/p>\n
Rape Prevention Education.<\/p>\n
Empowerment Trust.<\/p>\n
HELP\u00a0(Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655.<\/p>\n
Safe to talk: 0800 044 334.<\/p>\n
Tautoko T\u0101ne Male Survivors Aotearoa.<\/p>\n
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests\u00a0(SNAP) 022 344 0496.<\/p>\n
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Shannon Pitman, Open Justice reporter WARNING: This article discusses sexual abuse and may be upsetting to some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-422156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422156","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=422156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}