Raped and kidnapped: Victim flees home as attacker Hayden Taylor freed to Auckland

Amanda Watt was kidnapped and raped by Hayden Taylor in 1996. He will be released from prison on Wednesday. Photo / Michael Craig

A woman kidnapped and raped by one of the country’s most notorious killers is furious he is being released to an address in Auckland - and says she will now quit the city as she is scared of running into him.

Amanda Watt told the Herald on Sunday she feels she is being forced to leave Auckland to avoid any contact with Hayden Taylor.

The killer appeared before the Parole Board on November 1 and is due for discharge on Wednesday.

“He is a callous monster and should remain behind bars,” Watt said.

“Right from the start, I told the police he shouldn’t have been bailed but no one listened. I feel like no one is listening to me again.”

Amanda Watt was kidnapped and raped by Hayden Taylor in 1996. He will be released from prison on Wednesday. Photo / Michael Craig

Taylor attacked Watt in April 1996. He threatened her with a knife, tied her hands behind her back and raped her in his car.

Watt, a sex worker at the time, said she had 30 seconds to decide whether to get into a car with a client.

“He was the biggest mistake I made. He held a knife to my throat and raped me. I was frozen and said ‘Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me’.”

Taylor drove her to Muriwai Beach where he tried to force her into the sand dunes. Watt managed to persuade him to return to the city.

Taylor was charged over that attack but released on bail. While awaiting trial, he killed pregnant teenager Nicola Rankin in September 1996.

Watt fears he might try to track her down and wants a current photograph of him.

“He will have changed after 26 years in prison but in my opinion, he is still a ruthless deviant,” Watt said.

“He has never admitted to anything he was sent to jail for. I am moving out because I don’t feel safe and I am petrified he has had a lot of time to think about revenge.”

The parole hearing decision obtained by the Herald on Sunday said Taylor would be electronically monitored. The board said Taylor had had significant rehabilitative and reintegration testing over many years and had been on Release to Work since May 2021.

He is not to have contact or otherwise associate with any victim of his offending unless he has approval from his probation officer and neither is he permitted to enter Auckland CBD or any other area west of State Highway 1, from the northern end of Manukau Harbour to Warkworth without approval.

After his release, it is the job of Corrections to monitor Taylor.

Convicted killer Hayden Taylor will be freed on parole next week. Photo / File

Julie Harrison, Corrections Northern Region operations director, said public safety was the top priority and Taylor would be monitored and managed “extremely closely”.

Taylor had 13 special conditions attached to his release and was subject to life parole - meaning any breach of his conditions could see him recalled to prison at any time.

“We fully acknowledge that the release of any prisoner can be distressing to victims, especially when the offender has been in custody for a long time,” Harrison said.

“We are committed to keeping victims informed and treating them with compassion. We have reached out to the victims of this person to advise them on how they can obtain a recent photo of this individual should they wish to do so.”

Taylor, who is now 46, met Rankin when they were both St John ambulance workers. He forced the teenager to walk into the remote Riverhead Forest, 35km northwest of Auckland, and bludgeoned her with a spade.

Her body was found in a shallow grave with her ankles tied and her hands bound behind her back and her underwear removed.

Carol Rankin, Nicola’s mother, who now lives in Australia, has previously told of the huge toll the loss of her daughter has taken on her life.

She has appealed for him to stay behind bars at least 13 times when he has been before the Parole Board.

Rankin told the Herald on Sunday she was now concentrating on “trying to process” Taylor being freed.

Carol Rankin has appealed to the Parole Board to keep her daughter's killer behind bars 13 times. Photo / File

Previous attempts to get parole were thwarted - in 2009 it emerged at a Parole Board hearing that he allegedly abducted and raped a 14-year-old girl before he killed Rankin. The girl did not press charges.

Watt, who has previously waived her rights to anonymity as a victim of sexual assault, says there is still time for that woman to come forward and press charges.

“Now is the best time, if we needed you to help us get justice, it’s now - it’s the only thing that will send him back to jail.”

Taylor has completed the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme and other rehabilitation courses, but Watt says she will never forgive him and doesn’t think he deserves a second chance.

“He knew Nicola was pregnant yet he killed them both. I know people will say he’s done his time and deserves a second chance; well, Nicola and her baby didn’t get a second chance did they? He might have been in prison half of his life but I’ve had to deal with this all my life.”