KEY POINTS:
Security camera footage from Northland towns helped lead police to two men who appeared in court yesterday charged with the gun-point abduction of a Dutch couple.
The men, aged 29 and 27, were granted interim name suppression when they appeared in the Kaikohe District Court on seven joint charges of kidnap, rape, sexual violation and aggravated robbery.
They were arrested on Tuesday night, 11 days after the young honeymooning tourists were accosted in the Haruru Falls carpark near Paihia. They were driven around for five hours before being left at Towai, south of Kawakawa.
The men are alleged to have robbed the couple of their bankcards while armed with a single-barrel 12-gauge shotgun. They are also charged with stupefying the woman, sexually violating her by unlawful sexual connection, detaining the man without his consent, taking the woman away and detaining her with intent to have sex with her without consent, and sexual violation by rape.
The men were remanded in custody without plea and their names were suppressed by JP Heather Ayrton until they reappear in court next Wednesday.
The 27-year-old is from Northland's west coast while the older man has no fixed abode and is unemployed. Police described both as transients with no fixed addresses.
They stood quietly in the court dock, heads sometimes bowed, dressed in blue boiler suits with hoods down. Neither man spoke during their appearance.
About a dozen people were in the public gallery but all were quiet. There was no sign of any support in court for the arrested men.
Detective Inspector Mike Pannett, who headed the police inquiry, said the men's arrests resulted from information from the public, forensic testing, town centre security camera footage "and good, old-fashioned leg work".
Mr Pannett said both men had since spoken to police and the shotgun thought to have been involved had been recovered.
Crown prosecutor Kim Thomas successfully sought an order prohibiting publication of anything leading to the identification of the young tourists, who were not in court for the hearing.
Police said the 27-year-old was arrested at a farmhouse north of Okaihau, and east of Kaikohe. The older man was stopped by police while driving south on State Highway 10 south of Kerikeri.
Mr Pannett said police inquiries were not yet complete and officers would continue to speak to other people, although no further arrests were expected.
"It's very much a jigsaw puzzle with pieces being put together," Mr Pannett said.
Mid North Victim Support counsellor Marienne Rogers said the couple did not blame New Zealand people for what had happened. She did not know whether they would stay on but said they had not yet accepted any offers of holidays, travel or accommodation. She would not say where they were currently staying.
Mr Pannett said the newlyweds had been told of the arrests and were "relieved" but still needed time to get over their experience.
He thanked the Bay of Islands community for its help in the inquiry, as did associate Tourism Minister and Far North list MP Dover Samuels, who said police deserved credit for acting swiftly.
In spite of what had happened, he believed Northland's reputation for hospitality remained intact.
