KEY POINTS:
A second man has admitted his role in the attack on a Dutch couple honeymooning in the Bay of Islands.
Christopher Mana Manuel, 27, pleaded guilty in Kaikohe District Court today to six charges including being party to sexual violation and robbery using a shotgun.
Manuel, 27, had been facing 12 joint charges, including two of aggravated robbery and kidnapping, one of rape and five of sexual violation.
Today Crown prosecutor Kim Thomas amended two of the charges and withdrew six others and Manuel pleaded guilty to six charges including being a party to sexual violation, and robbery using a shotgun.
The Dutch woman was subjected to a prolonged sexual attack by Keith Anthony McEwen, 30, who in February pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery, two of kidnapping, five of sexual violation and one each of rape, attempted stupification and using a document.
When McEwen pleaded guilty, the court was told the couple arrived at Haruru Falls in a campervan about 7pm on November 10 last year.
They went to bed about 10pm but were woken by intruders who allegedly posed as police officers, telling the couple to open their campervan.
A shotgun was placed under the husband's chin as the intruders demanded money, saying they would rape his wife if he didn't comply.
The tourists were handcuffed and the woman was forced to swallow sedatives, and gagged with tape before McEwen sexually assaulted her.
The couple's money card was used to withdraw cash before they were eventually dumped in a paddock and found their way to a farm house to raise the alarm.
Judge Thomas Everitt today made a ruling banning any publication of the tourists names, their jobs, ages or any other identifying features.
Manuel was remanded in custody to be sentenced with McEwen on April 19.
McEwen was not long out of prison when he committed the abduction which has put him back behind bars.
He was jailed for eight years in 2000 after admitting stealing a treasure trove of jewellery while employed as a chef at the Kelly Tarlton Shipwreck Museum at Waitangi.
The stolen haul included gold sovereigns that Mr Tarlton, a diver, had salvaged from the ship Elingamite, wrecked at Three Kings Islands north of Cape Reinga in 1902, and part of the Rothschild collection he recovered from the ship Tasmania which sank near Gisborne in 1897.
A collection of greenstone and gold coins also disappeared.
The jewellery was not found and an insurance company rejected a $300,000 insurance claim from the diver's widow, Rosemary Tarlton, because the theft was carried out by an employee working at the museum set up on the scow Tui.
- NZPA
