DNA clue to Christmas Eve beating of 89-year-old

DNA found on a belt and shoelace provided a breakthrough when a Rotorua 89-year-old was unable to remember details of a vicious attack in her home on Christmas Eve 2001, a court has heard.

Lorna Herbert, now 94, suffered a broken jaw and was bound and robbed at knifepoint during the attack.

No arrest was made until March this year, when Graham Kereama Hepi was charged after giving a voluntary DNA sample to police.

The unemployed 34-year-old pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday.

He faces one charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, one of aggravated robbery and four of using a document for pecuniary advantage in relation to allegations he tried to withdraw money with Mrs Herbert's bank card.

The court heard that the DNA taken from Hepi matched DNA found on one of two shoelaces used to bind Mrs Herbert's ankles and wrists and on a belt she was wearing.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon said Mrs Herbert was attacked after going into town to buy a chicken and other last-minute provisions for Christmas Day. She had also had her hair done.

When the widow got home, she stuffed the chicken and was pottering around the house when a man knocked on her door.

He told her he was looking for a woman who had helped raise him, who lived in the area.

He gave Mrs Herbert a name which sounded familiar to her, and she opened her screen door to show him the person's address.

"The next thing she remembers is lying on the floor by her bathroom," Ms Gordon said.

After the attack, Mrs Herbert crawled outside and was found by passersby with her wrists and ankles bound with shoelaces.

She was taken to Rotorua Hospital and admitted to intensive care. A forensic examination showed no sign of sexual assault.

She was later transferred to Waikato Hospital, where she had surgery for her broken jaw.

Ms Gordon said Mrs Herbert's evidence would be read because she was too ill to attend the trial.

Mrs Herbert could not identify Hepi in a photo-montage of suspects, but told police she recalled her attacker demanding the pin number to her bank card as she lay on the floor.

When she provided one with three digits, she said he threatened her with a knife and told her it must be wrong.

She then provided a false four-digit number, which Hepi allegedly tried four times at two different money machines before the card was swallowed.

Hepi denied any involvement in the attack, telling police he did not know the street where Mrs Herbert lived and was at a holiday park in Waihi on Christmas Eve 2001.

Ms Gordon said Crown evidence would show he had lived near Mrs Herbert from 1995 to 1997 and checked into the holiday park on Boxing Day.