Convicted rapist arrested in Gisborne

Maka Renata. Photo / Supplied

Convicted sex offender Maka Renata has been arrested in Gisborne after almost a month on the run.

Renata, 24, was released from prison in December after serving a 10-year sentence for two rapes.

In January, police launched a nationwide hunt for Renata after he breached several prison release conditions in Christchurch the previous month.

He was arrested in Lower Hutt then relocated to Napier under intensive supervision, but again breached his release conditions.

Renata was arrested at a Gisborne house this morning after a tip off from the public, Police Eastern Districts communications manager Kris McGehan said.

He will appear in Gisborne District Court this afternoon on charges of breaching his release conditions.

Renata was jailed for seven and half years after being convicted of rape committed in June 1999 when he was 14.

He and his foster father Dean Hiroki dragged a 26-year-old Wellington woman into an alley where they held a knife to her throat and took turns raping her.

He was sentenced to an extra three years in jail after sodomising his 15-year-old cellmate about 16 months later.

Renata was due to be freed more than two years ago but the Department of Corrections applied for a special Parole Act order to keep him in jail until his final release date of December last year, when he was released.

- NZPA