Warning: This article discusses sexual assault and may be distressing

A Rimutaka prison escapee accused of raping a woman who picked him up while hitchhiking has prior convictions for almost identical offending.

The man has been on trial in court since last week, having pleaded guilty to escaping prison, but denying the rape.

In an admission of facts read to the jury this morning, the Crown revealed the defendant had twice previously brandished weapons and tried to rape women.

In 2000, the man, who still has interim name suppression, had been released from prison just days before he met with a female real estate agent. He asked to see a property and she offered to drive him in her car.

Once the pair were inside the car, he showed her an air rifle and said he needed to go to Blenheim. When she refused to drive him, he drew her attention to the gun again and said she had no choice, the Crown said.

She pulled into a gravel embankment, where the defendant said he was going to “have his way with her” and kissed her. When she pulled away and tooted the horn to draw attention to herself, he said he would shoot her.

She managed to escape, despite him attempting to pull her back into the car, and he later pled guilty to kidnapping, possession of an imitation firearm and indecent assault.

The man escaped Rimutaka Prison. Photo / File

Five years later, the defendant was convicted again – this time for abduction for the purpose of sexual connection and intent to commit sexual violation.

Once again, the defendant had just been released from prison and went to a real estate agent’s office in Paremata, where he told a female agent he wanted to buy a holiday home, so she drove him to a property in Plimmerton.

Once inside the property, the defendant blocked the doorway to a bedroom with his body, preventing the agent from leaving. He then pulled out a 20cm steak knife.

He told her to “‘take your clothes off or I’ll cut you”.

She convinced him to break the knife blade and walk with her to the bathroom to flush it.

Once back in the bedroom, he indecently assaulted her, then went to the front door to lock the agent and himself inside the house.

While he was doing this, the agent escaped out of a window.

He later told police he was intending to rob her, but decided he would rape her instead when the opportunity presented itself.

Now, the trial for his current offence is approaching its conclusion. The defendant is accused of raping the woman who picked him up while he was hitchhiking after escaping prison in February 2022.

The Crown alleges he got into her vehicle, then pulled out a knife he had stolen from an abandoned warehouse.

He told her to drive him to Hunterville, and that they were going to have sex. When she said she didn’t think she could, he again showed the knife and said he had “gutted things before and there was no harm in doing it again”.

The woman drove to a cemetery, where he directed her to get into the back of the car, and there the Crown said he raped her.

After that, the woman drove him to Masterton where she managed to flag the assistance of a local man in a laundromat and the defendant was arrested.

He is charged with one count of abduction for the purpose of sexual connection, assault with a weapon and sexual violation by rape and has pled not guilty to all charges.

The Crown said in its summation the prior offending showed a pattern of behaviour and a propensity to take advantage of women when he was alone with them and to threaten with a weapon, with the intention of sexual connection.

Crown lawyer Stephanie Bishop told the jury she understood the prior offending did not mean the defendant was automatically guilty - but it could be considered when judging the complainant’s evidence.

Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.