Clue sees suspect arrested for 2001 home invasion

Police have charged a Rotorua man in connection with a vicious home invasion more than four years ago in which an 89-year-old woman was tied up and beaten unconscious.

Forensic technology helped identify the 33-year-old, whom police have charged with the aggravated robbery and serious assault of the woman in her home on Christmas Eve 2001.

Police would not say what the new forensic evidence is. The man is due to appear in the Rotorua High Court tomorrow.

Detective Sergeant Tania Scott, of Rotorua police, said police were pleased that the offender might be brought to justice, even though years had passed since the incident.

The attack had occurred some time in the afternoon after the woman, a widow with no children who lived alone, had gone to the hairdresser.

When she returned, an intruder tied her hands and feet and beat her unconscious, hitting her so hard that she suffered a broken jaw.

The man made off with cash and an ATM card.

The woman, covered in blood, managed to free her hands when she regained consciousness, and crawled about 15m to the footpath outside her home unit at the corner of Toko St and Malfroy Rd.

Two women walking by heard her cries for help. They found her bent over, semi-conscious and holding on to a fence.

She had planned on spending Christmas having lunch with a friend, but was instead admitted to intensive care in Rotorua Hospital, and then transferred to Waikato Hospital for surgery on her jaw.

The woman moved to a rest home afterwards because she was too scared to return to her home.

Rotorua police said in 2004 that police had DNA evidence and it was only a matter of time before the offender was found.