KEY POINTS:
A woman violently raped in her Auckland home has spoken out about the attacker, who stalked her before he struck.
The 46-year-old spoke exclusively to the Herald this week, in the hope her story will lead to the arrest of 29-year-old Teanewa Joseph Ipo, the man police say is responsible.
"He makes us feel not safe," she said.
"We feel like something is always in our heart, like a dark shadow."
The Malaysian woman says she was asleep in her Otahuhu home on Tuesday last week when she felt someone repeatedly hitting her on the head.
"I thought I was dreaming ... When I woke up a dark shadow of a man was standing at my bed."
He tried to smother the terrified woman with a pillow, but she fought back.
"I tried to struggle because he tried to push [down] on me. I kicked him and he got angry and punched me on my head and my face."
The woman's screams woke her 67-year-old mother, who rushed from the next room fearing her daughter would be killed.
"Mum tried to pull him off, then this guy punched my mum's face and kicked her in the back and chest.
"She tried to help, to fight with the man. She knew she can't fight with him, but she tried to save me."
The man grabbed a belt and hit the woman's mother with the buckle end, severely bruising her cheek, back, chest and arms.
He then used the belt to tie her up, before locking her in a wardrobe and returning to rape the dazed daughter.
She asked him, "Why you do this to me?" He replied: "You know what I want".
After the attack, the woman's clothing and bedding were covered in blood. The man told her to shower but there was no water due to a broken watermain so he told her to get changed. He then told her to drink some milk after she complained of feeling dizzy.
When the woman said she wanted to check on her mother - who was still in the wardrobe - he called out, "Mum, are you okay?"
"He [then] asked me to lie down on my bed and to cover my face."
Two hours after breaking into her home, the man forced his victim into the wardrobe with her mother, pushing a sidetable up against it so they could not escape.
Before leaving, he told the daughter she was lucky he didn't kill her.
The victim said she recognised her attacker as a man who had walked by the back of her house several days before the attack.
That was confirmed when he told her he had watched the women on two occasions.
Ten minutes after he had gone, the women escaped from the wardrobe and called a friend, who called the police.
The women were taken to hospital, where the daughter was treated for five missing teeth, cuts to her head, a fractured cheek and badly swollen jaw and severe bruising around her neck, arms and wrists.
The mother, who had been visiting from Malaysia, said of the attacker: "The sooner we catch him the better, so he won't do it again to other people."
Police are anxious to find Teanewa Ipo, who is described as 175cm tall and of medium build, with short brown hair that could now be shaven.
WANTED
Teanewa Joseph Ipo
* 29 years old, 175cm tall, medium build.
* Short brown hair which is believed to have been recently shaved.
* Contacts in Auckland and Bay of Plenty.
* Police have issued a warrant for Ipo's arrest on the charge of sexual violation by way of rape.
* Anyone with information is asked to phone 0800 JOLSON (0800 565 766).
