By Eugene Bingham and Paula Penfold, 3D Investigates producer and reporter
A member of Malcolm Rewa's family has come forward with new evidence against him in the unsolved Susan Burdett murder case.
He has told 3D Investigates he is prepared to testify against Rewa in any fresh prosecution.
"I would give evidence," the man told the programme. "We know what went down and how it happened."
3D Investigates will tonight reveal fresh information about Rewa's involvement in the 1992 rape and murder of Burdett in her Papatoetoe home.
The family member, one of two witnesses with new details, says he wants to apologise to the Burdett family.
"I apologise for what has happened. They lost a loved one and I wouldn't like it to happen to my family. And I don't mind helping the family.
"I should've been a man enough way back and come forward."
Rewa, jailed in 1998 for attacks against 25 women, faced two trials for murdering Burdett. He was convicted of raping her, but neither jury could agree on whether he was guilty of murder.
The complicating factor in the Rewa case was that another man, Teina Pora, had previously been found guilty of killing her.
Pora's convictions have since been overturned by the Privy Council, which ruled he had suffered a miscarriage of justice.
Rewa is eligible for parole in 2018. He continues to deny killing Burdett, and a stay of proceedings was issued by the Solicitor-General in 1998.
The stay can be lifted if there are exceptional circumstances. Pora's legal team has already argued that the quashing of Pora's convictions qualify as exceptional circumstances and that Rewa should be prosecuted a third time.
But a spokesman for Police National Headquarters told 3D Investigates this week the case was not being investigated.
"Any new information which becomes available to police will be assessed to determine what, if any, further steps are required," says the spokesman.
"This would include any information which might be considered 'exceptional circumstances' for the Solicitor-General to consider the prospect of a third trial of Malcolm Rewa. At this time however police are satisfied that all relevant facts have been considered in relation to the murder of Susan Burdett."
The private investigator who uncovered the extent of the miscarriage of justice against Pora, Tim McKinnel, told the programme he had no doubt the police should re-open the Burdett case, or at the very least get a fresh team to review the file.
"Society and the Burdett family deserve some answers; they deserve so much more than what they've got now, and it's a curious situation where you're uncovering new evidence in relation to the case and the police are looking the other way," he told 3D Investigates.
The Evidence, 3D Investigates, TV3, 6:30pm tonight.
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