Crime

How the police sprung a ‘Mr Big’ undercover sting to snare a murderer, and what we can’t say about it

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Kamal Reddy is going to jail following the successful use of the controversial ‘Crime Scenario Undercover Technique’. What does our highest court have to say about its use? Sorry, you’re not allowed to know that yet, writes Andrew Geddis Kamal Reddy is an undeniably bad man. Last month a jury decided that, back in late … Read more

Teina Pora has been shortchanged by at least $2 million – Cabinet’s own guidelines say so

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Teina Pora has been given the thing he said he wanted most – a formal apology for the 22 years he wrongly spent behind bars as an innocent man. He also has been offered $2.5 million in compensation. Applying the Cabinet’s own principles, it ought to be a minimum of $4.5 million, writes professor of … Read more

You Shouldn’t Dream Here: On the tragic Auckland most of us never see

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In a deeply personal essay, youth worker Iain Stevens* tells of the small joys and savage pains of his work with some of our community’s most damaged families. I wondered what it was going to take to break my heart. I’ve been a youth advocate for just on four years. Moving all around West Auckland, … Read more

Australia forced to face its modern demons on the extraordinary ‘Bowraville’ podcast

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Duncan Greive on Bowraville, the heartbreaking podcast dubbed ‘the Australian Serial’. I spent my family holiday immersed in child murder. I didn’t mean for it to be that way – it just sort of happened. First I read: Helen Garner’s House of Grief, a harrowing account of a trial for a man who drowned his sons. … Read more

Sydney nightlife is at death’s door. Auckland could be next

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Opinion: Last month’s early-morning street brawl has renewed police calls for earlier closing times in the Auckland CBD and beyond. That’s precisely the sort of overreaction that has decimated the nightlife industry over the ditch, says Tom McGuinness. At around 4:30am on Sunday 20th March, a street brawl erupted on Fort Street in Auckland’s CBD. … Read more

What happens when you appear before a judge you called a c*** on Facebook?

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Tim Murphy brings you perhaps the finest court transcript in New Zealand’s long and glorious judicial history. On January 12 2016 Taranaki Judge Allan Roberts announced his retirement, as reported by the Taranaki Daily News. A man named Troy LaRue found the story on social media, and made an uncomplimentary remark about Roberts’ appearance. Unluckily, he was summonsed to … Read more

Trial by Twitter – how social media has made juries of us all

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Few of us can refrain from speculation when faced with a crime story like Making a Murderer and Serial – or Mark Lundy or David Bain. Elizabeth Beattie talks to New Zealand legal experts about the influence of social media on our most high profile trials. Had a conversation about Teresa Halbach’s RAV4 lately? What about Adnan … Read more