Man pleads guilty to attacks on women

An Auckland beneficiary today pleaded guilty to 34 charges relating to six female victims, three of whom were raped.

Frankie Te Uira Edwards, 30, of Mangere, was remanded in custody until September 12, when a date for sentencing would be set in the High Court at Auckland.

In Waitakere District Court, Judge Philip Recordon said it was concerning to note again the use of the drug P in cases like this.

He also accepted the submission of defence counsel Martin Hine that Edwards needed to be monitored because of the risk of self harm.

Apart from a number of sexual violation counts, other charges Edwards faced included abduction, aggravated robbery and threatening to kill. They arose from incidents between April 9 and June 2.

One victim was a 17-year-old girl who was abducted on June 1 as she got in her car with her 12-year-old sister at a south Auckland shopping mall.

She was forced to drive off and was raped twice while her sister was tied up in the back seat.

In another attack on May 26, an 18-year-old girl was abducted after visiting a Mangere house and driven to a nearby industrial area where she was raped.

Police closed in on Edwards after he took the car of his last victim, whom he abducted on June 2 as she left Starship Hospital, where she had visited a friend.

After making the woman withdraw money from an automatic teller machine and then raping her in a west Auckland car park, he took her to Whenuapai.

He left her there by the side of the road and drove off in her car, taking money and personal belongings with him.

Detective Sergeant Megan Goldie said outside the court that police had an idea where the car might end up and their hunch proved correct.

"When we watched the car, he eventually came back to it," she said. "We didn't have any idea who the offender was prior to that."

The two other incidents were on April 9 and 10.

One victim had returned to her car from accident and emergency premises. Edwards smashed the driver's window with a spanner, taking the woman's handbag after a struggle.

A day later, he got into another woman's car in Epsom, but she managed to break free.

Ms Goldie said there was little any of the women could have done to avoid being attacked.

Edwards' initial aim was robbery to get money to pay off drug debts and to buy more drugs, and the offending had been opportunistic.

"He just waited and saw someone who he thought would fit his idea of a victim," she said. "Those women were not doing anything out of the ordinary. They were just very unlucky."

She said the victims were coping as best they could.

"Surviving is how I would describe it," she said. "They are doing their best to get through it, but it's a long road."

- NZPA