Rape victim faces her demon
Jan 24, 2011
from Carolyne Meng-Yee's article on nzherald.co.nz:
One of the country's most notorious killers has told one of his victims what she has waited nearly 15 years to hear - he raped her.
Hayden Taylor, 35, who is on preventive detention at Paremoremo Prison for the murder of pregnant teenager Nicola Rankin in 1996, has confessed to Amanda Watt that he assaulted her in the months before Rankin died.
The pair met in prison in an emotion-charged restorative justice hearing.
Rape charges in the Watt case were dropped against Taylor at the time, in return for him telling investigators where in Riverhead Forest, 35km northwest of Auckland, he had buried Rankin.
Taylor was last year denied parole but Watt, a month older than him and a street worker when she was raped, has been desperate to know why he picked her and why he did not kill her, as he did Rankin.
Until now Taylor has not been ready to meet her, and Watt has given a rare insight into the restorative justice process by talking about the meeting and how it affected her.
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