escalating violence in our community Become a member of the Sensible Sentencing Trust

Mouseover links for full page descriptions

Offender Databases Toleafoa Leuluai

Toleafoa (Louis) Leuluai

Alias

.

Offences

Home invasion and rape of a 66 year old Wellington woman in September 1997

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1973

Current Location

unknown

Parole/Release Dates

Sentence to be updated

Background
From a Dominion story July 28th 1998
A 25-year old man ignored a 66-year-old woman's pleas to be left alone as he raped her in broad daylight at her isolated farmhouse near Wellington, the High Court at Wellington was told yesterday. In a statement read to the court, the woman said she feared the man's violence would kill her because a brain operation had left her skull unusually fragile.

Powerfully built Toleafoa (Lewis) Leuluai pleaded not guilty yesterday to raping the woman and sexually violating her at her home on September 17 last year. Her name and address are suppressed. The trial, before Justice Neazor and a jury of seven women and five men, is scheduled to end tomorrow.

At the beginning of the trial the judge said the case was unusual because the victim, who was unwell, would not be giving evidence in person, but her statement would be read to the court. The judge said defence lawyer Paul Surridge had indicated there was no argument about what Leuluai had done, though there would be argument about what the verdict should be.

The woman's statement said her husband had gone out and she was about to leave to pick up two friends when a strange car came down their kilometre-long drive. She asked the man in it if he wanted her husband and when he did not reply properly she became suspicious and decided to go back to the house and set the burglar alarm. But the man followed her and though she entered the house alone she found him at the back door standing by the burglar alarm panel. "I knew then I was in terrible trouble," the woman said.

The man pushed her into the house and thrust her to the floor. The woman said she had had trouble breathing and thought she might die. But when she told him she was not well he responded: "You are a fit woman." The man dragged her to a bedroom and caused her great pain as he violated her with his fingers.

The woman said she tried to distract him and had said he had kind brown eyes and asked why he was doing such a cruel thing. He seemed to become more violent and angry and threatened to rape the woman on her dining room table. The man was raping her on the kitchen table when he stopped, saying he could hear something. The woman said she told him it might be her husband returning home and he made off. She then set off the burglar alarm sirens and telephoned for help.

The woman said she had kept talking to try to pacify the man and became submissive when he raped her because she feared he would kill her. At times the man seemed remote, as though he had been taking drugs, but he did not smell of alcohol. Police gave evidence of passing Leuluai as they travelled to the woman's house. When stopped, Leuluai said he had "been at the fishing" but there was no fishing tackle in the car, though police found a beanie hat similar to one the woman described.

Forensic experts gave evidence of finding Leuluai's fingerprints at the woman's house and isolating dna that matched the woman's on a swab from his penis. In a long videotaped interview with police, Leuluai agreed he had driven in the area of the woman's home but would not say exactly what he was doing. He kept asking police: "What's wrong - what am I here for?"

---

Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

Back to Top