Dunedin gang member committed violent sex attack on woman he'd just met

Pierre Rewi Anglem was given a first strike warning after being found guilty by the jury of a lengthy sex attack in August 2020. Photo / Getty Images

An unrepentant gang member has been found guilty of a violent sex attack after a week-long trial.

After less than three hours' deliberation the jury at the Dunedin District Court yesterday unanimously found Pierre Rewi Anglem, 42, guilty of four unlawful sexual connection charges, two of rape, one of possessing a hammer, and another of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Anglem shook his head, and as he made his way back down to the cells, his parting words were, "You're wrong."

All of his charges relate to an incident on August 27, 2020.

The victim in the matter was told by a friend that a mutual acquaintance was coming around and bringing his "cuz".

The three smoked methamphetamine together.

However, the mutual acquaintance left unexpectedly, leaving the woman alone with Anglem, whom she had never met.

Anglem produced a hammer from his pocket.

"There can be only one real intention for doing so," said Crown prosecutor Richard Smith in his closing statement.

Terrified she would be hit with the hammer, the victim performed a sex act on Anglem.

The jury heard this was not a consensual act by law because she was under duress.

No reasonable person could have believed she was consenting, especially as she tried to pull away and said she could not breathe, Smith said.

Before any DNA evidence came to light, on November 25, Anglem wrote a note for his aunt during a prison visit, instructing his cousin to create a false alibi for him. Photo / Supplied

After this, Anglem picked her up and walked her towards the bedroom but she put her hands on the door frame to stop from going in. It was there that the first rape happened.

Physically overpowered and "frozen", the victim was forced into the bedroom and endured what she described as two hours of "half-torture, half-rape".

When the mutual acquaintance returned she was able to escape.

The next day, she confessed to her sister and a friend that she had been raped but she did not go to the police right away.

It was only after officers were called to her home on an unrelated matter, and an assumption her sister had already told them, that she disclosed the details.

Eight days after the event, Dr Jacqueline Hughes performed a medical examination which found an absence of injuries to the genital region.

That was common, she said, and did not rule out a sexual assault.

ESR forensic scientist Wendy James analysed samples of semen recovered from the scene in a clump of pulled-out hair the complainant had gathered up after the incident.

It was three thousand million times more likely to be Anglem's than anyone else's, James said.

Before any DNA evidence came to light, on November 25, Anglem wrote a note for his aunt during a prison visit, instructing his cousin to create a false alibi for him.

It was confiscated as she was leaving Christchurch Men's Prison.

During the trial, defence counsel Anne Stevens QC focused on a photo the victim had used to identify her attacker to the police.

Stevens suggested the woman had misidentified Anglem and was trying to frame him for a cannabis theft from her ex the week before.

"I spent days looking at many, many gang members with many, many patches ... if I am wrong, it is easy to be confused ... because I don't know these people," the victim testified at trial.

Smith said this admission of a mistake showed the victim was an honest and reliable witness.

Her identification, he said, was "rock solid" because she immediately pointed him out in a police photo montage.

"She never met this guy before that night and she picks him out straight away," Smith said.

Anglem was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on July 15.