Violent rapist still on run

Maka Renata. Photo / Supplied

A violent rapist remains on the run after breaching his prison release conditions.

Maka Renata, 24, was released from prison in December after serving a 10-year sentence for two rapes.

In January, police launched a nationwide hunt for Renata after he breached several parole conditions in Christchurch the previous month.

He was arrested in Lower Hutt then relocated to Napier under intensive supervision.

Napier police were now looking for him after he allegedly breached his parole conditions a second time.

They also wanted to speak to him about a burglary at a Napier hotel last month.

He was jailed for seven and half years after being convicted of rape committed in June 1999 when he was 14.

He and his foster father Dean Hiroki dragged a 26-year-old Wellington woman into an alley where they held a knife to her throat and took turns raping her.

He was sentenced to an extra three years in jail after sodomising his 15-year-old cellmate about 16 months later.

Renata was due to be freed more than two years ago but the Department of Corrections applied for a special Parole Act order to keep him in jail until his final release date of December last year, when he was released.

Renata went missing more than two weeks before police went public.

Napier Senior Sergeant Dan Foley told The Dominion Post police wanted to give Renata an opportunity to hand himself in, or for them to find him first.

Police had visited Renata's family members and searched in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne.

Renata had "a very violent criminal history" and could reoffend at any time, Mr Foley said.

He should not be approached by the public, police said.

He was described as Maori, 24 years old, 166cm tall and of medium build.

- NZPA