Serial sex attacker admits 34 charges

Frankie Edwards in court yesterday. Picture / Kenny Rodger. Click on 'more pictures' below for a map showing where the attacks happened.

A South Auckland man has admitted abducting and raping three women and attacking another three, one of whom was tied up in a car while her older sister was raped.

Frankie Edwards' offending took place between April and June. His victims were from throughout Auckland.

Edwards, a 30-year-old beneficiary, admitted 34 charges when he appeared in the Waitakere District Court yesterday.

Judge Philip Recordon convicted him and remanded him in custody until September 12, when the High Court will set a date for his sentencing.

After his arrest on June 3, Edwards told police he went after his victims to steal money to pay for a drug debt.

It was only once he was with them that he "formed the desire" to take matters further.

His first attack was on April 9 outside an accident and emergency clinic in Henderson.

Edwards hid in bushes for 45 minutes until a 29-year-old woman returned to her car from the clinic. As she was putting the key in the ignition she saw Edwards running towards her, and locked the car.

Edwards smashed the driver-side window with a spanner, reached inside and grabbed the screaming woman around the throat to silence her. He ran off after taking her handbag.

Seventeen hours later Edwards struck again, outside the Gillies Ave Badminton Hall in Epsom.

After watching a 42-year-old woman get into her car, he climbed in the passenger seat and told her to drive or he would "kill her whole family". Threatened with a knife, the woman drove off but escaped at traffic lights.

On May 26, Edwards' attacks turned sexual in nature.

He was walking along Bucklands Rd in Mangere at 10pm when he saw an 18-year-old woman returning to her car. He sprinted across the road and got in beside her, holding a screwdriver and saying he had a gun.

Edwards took the woman's jewellery and mobile phone, and made her drive around town withdrawing cash from ATMs.

He then drove her to an industrial area where he made her remove her clothes and tie her top around her eyes.

He raped her then drove to a nearby address and bought cannabis.

An hour and a half after her ordeal began Edwards threw the car keys at the woman, telling her to drive herself home as he ran off.

On June 1, Edwards watched two sisters park their car at Manukau City shopping centre, and waited for them to return. As they got back into the car Edwards got into the back seat and held a screwdriver to the younger sister's neck saying "don't look at my face, I will stab you with this screwdriver".

He bound the 12-year-old's hands and told her to lie on the floor in the back of the car. Her 17-year-old sister was forced into the front passenger seat.

Edwards drove the girls to Mangere, where he raped and sexually violated the older sister.

He took the girls to several ATMs but they did not have enough cash in their account, so they were taken to West Auckland where the older sister was raped and violated again.

After stealing their cellphones and wallets, he left the car, giving the girls directions on how to get back to the motorway.

The final rape was the next night. The victim was a 29-year-old woman who had been visiting a friend at Auckland City Hospital.

Threatened with a sharpened piece of metal, she was driven to West Auckland, forced to withdraw money and raped.

At one stage, Edwards stopped in Ranui to buy methamphetamine.

The woman was eventually dumped in a paddock in Whenuapai.

Edwards took her car - which police found the next morning at an address to which he had earlier taken his victim.

Police arrested him as he returned to the car, and he confessed to his crimes.

Yesterday, defence lawyer Martin Hine said there was little in Edwards' background to explain why he had committed such "horrific" acts.

"Why has he done it? The only thing I can think of is the delusional ravages of P."

Edwards has 68 previous convictions and has served more than a dozen custodial sentences. It is understood none of the previous convictions have anything to do with sexual offending.

His guilty plea means his victims will not have to testify in a trial.

Detective Sergeant Megan Goldie said outside the court there was little any of the women could have done to avoid being attacked.

"Those women were not doing anything out of the ordinary. They were just very unlucky."

- additional reporting NZPA