On June 13, Chinese national Tingjun Cao was jailed for life for the murder of Christchurch real estate agent and mother Yanfei Bao. Bao, 44, was stabbed to death in July 2023 and buried in a shallow grave on a farm outside Christchurch. She was not found for more than a year. The crime shocked New Zealand and this month on Herald podcast A Moment In Crime senior journalist and host Anna Leask tells the story of Yanfei and her killer. In this episode Leask goes inside the courtroom to Cao’s sent...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 25 min
Warning: this episode refers to child sex abuse and is intended for a mature audience only. The Christchurch Civic Creche child sex abuse scandal rocked the South Island city in the early 90s - and went on to become one of the most significant legal battles in New Zealand's history. Childcare worker Peter Ellis was accused of bizarre and horrifying offences of satanic rituals, torture and sacrifice against preschoolers while he worked at the creche. He was eventually convicted on 16 charges of s...
May 14, 2025•39 min•Ep. 66
Youth crime is a constant issue in New Zealand – and in the last few years, stories of ram raids, violent attacks and spree offending have dominated the headlines. Successive governments have tried to tackle the problem – introducing various policies, programs and plans and even changing legislation. There has been some success, but for some youth offenders, it seems there is nothing anyone can say or do to stop their often terrifying and relentless behaviour. In this episode of A Moment In Crim...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 11 min
In 2015 a 43-year-old man was jailed for more than 15 years for the premeditated, prolonged and persistent sexual abuse of his two young daughters - filming much of the abuse of the youngest and uploading it to vile websites. He was also convicted of sexual offending against another two little girls he met through his job at a community centre and secretly filming an adult friend having sex. Recently he was refused parole and his daughters spoke to senior journalist Anna Leask, host of the Heral...
Mar 12, 2025•41 min
In the 1970s, the Mr Asia drug syndicate was one of the largest sellers of heroin in the world. The group began in New Zealand, with two men at its centre: Marty Johnstone and Terry Clark. As the syndicate spread around the world, for a few years, they were living the high life. And then, they started killing each other. In the new season of A Forgotten History, from the New Zealand Herald and Bird of Paradise Productions, John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy revisit the lives and crimes of these tw...
Feb 18, 2025•2 min
Anthony John Wheble is not as well-known as many of the criminals previously covered by A Moment in Crime - but he is considered of New Zealand’s most violent criminals. He has been in prison for more than a decade and he is serving as sentence with no end date, due to the severity and nature of his crimes. Wheble has tried to kill two fellow inmates with shanks - one who was confined to a wheelchair at the time with both legs in casts. The impression you get from the news stories and from the c...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr
From the start of 2021 to November 2023 a total of 333 police staff - constabulary and non-sworn - were investigated for alleged criminal offending. The constabulary includes all of those from recruits right up to senior inspectors and top cops. Non sworn staff are in admin or support roles within the organisation. Of those investigated, 89 were charged. In some cases, employees faced multiple charges. They have murdered and raped people. They have stolen and lied. They’ve bought and sold drugs....
Jan 08, 2025•59 min
In the 19 years I have been a crime and justice reporter I have told countless stories about offending in New Zealand - who is behind it, who is hurt by it and the lasting impact. I’ve covered a lot of the really high-profile cases during that time - including more than 130 murders, and dozens upon dozens of prosecutions and trials for manslaughter, sexual assaults and abuse, domestic violence and child abuse. I’ve also written a lot about our country's most enduring cold cases and best-known hi...
Dec 11, 2024•59 min•Ep. 61
In August 2014 Connor Morris was fatally injured during a street fight in West Auckland. He was struck in the head with a sickle-like tool and died instantly. Morris, 27, was a patched gang member, the son of a senior leader and was in a relationship with the daughter of one of New Zealand's most prominent broadcasters. His murder and the trial f or the man responsible, was high profile. A Moment In Crime writer and host Anna Leask covered the trial and sentencing for the Herald and looks back a...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 8 min
It is not a rare occurrence for teachers to be investigated or charged with sexual offending against the children and young people they are supposed to be educating, guiding and nurturing. But some cases are significantly worse than other and in this episode of A Moment In Crime host Anna Leask recalls the three sex offending teachers who have caused New Zealand kids the most harm. The cases of Jaime Cooney, Paul Herrick and James Robertson are among the wrost offenders - in terms of how the abu...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 23 min
This is the second in a two-part episode. In 2023 South African doctor Lauren Anne Dickason was found guilty of murdering her daughters Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home. She and her husband Graham - an ortopaedic surgeon - had emigrated to New Zealand just weeks earlier seeking a better, safer life for their young children. Dickason killed the little girls 20 minutes after her husband left for a work function. He found the siblings dead in their beds when he arr...
Aug 21, 2024•1 hr 34 min
In 2023 South African doctor Lauren Anne Dickason was found guilty of murdering her daughters Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home. She and her husband Graham - an ortopaedic surgeon - had emigrated to New Zealand just weeks earlier seeking a better, safer life for their young children. Dickason killed the little girls 20 minutes after her husband left for a work function. He found the siblings dead in their beds when he arrived home. Dickason admitted smothering th...
Aug 07, 2024•1 hr
On Easter Monday 2021, Paulina Hanna was found dead at the Remuera home she shared with her husband of 30 years, Philip Polkinghorne. For 16 months, her death was treated as “unexplained”. That’s until it emerged Polkinghorne had been charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty in August 2022. From the team behind The Front Page, the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, comes Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial. Listen to Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or...
Jul 28, 2024•44 sec
Cynric Temple-Camp is one of New Zealand's top pathologists - and he has just published his third book about his work. The Final Diagnosis is a collection of stranger-than-fiction stories of death, disease and murder - as well as Temple-Camp sharing new perspectives on high-profile cases, including the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope and the trial of Mark Lundy. A Moment In Crime host Anna Leask spoke with Temple-Camp about the book, his career and why he is sure beyond reasonable dou...
Jul 10, 2024•50 min
To mark the 30 year anniversary of the mass killing A Moment In Crime presents The House of Bain, a two-part telling of the case. On June 20 1994 Margaret and Robin Bain, their teenage daughters Arawa and Laniet and son Stephen were all shot dead in the family home at 65 Every Street, Dunedin. Just after 7am David Bain - Margaret and Robin's oldest child - called emergency services to report the ghastly scene. He said he had come home from his morning paper run and found them all dead. Days late...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 45 min
On June 20 1994 five members of the Bain family were found shot dead in their home at 65 Every Street, Dunedin. Margaret and Robin Bain, their teenage daughter Arawa and Laniet and their son Stephen were all shot at close range. Just after 7am David Bain - Margaret and Robin's oldest child - called emergency services to report the ghastly scene. He said he had come home from his morning paper run and found them all dead. Days later Bain was charged with five counts of murder and after a high-pro...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 10 min
In 1954 Christchurch woman Honorah Parker was murdered while on a walk in the Port Hills. The culprits? Her daughter Pauline, 15 and best friend Juliet Hulme, 16. With “animal ferocity” they hit her over and over again with a brick inside a stocking . Police would later say the 46-year-old had been “battered to pieces”. After a controversial trial, the teens were found guilty of murder - a jury rejecting their claims of insanity. In this episode of A Moment In Crime host Anna Leask looks back at...
Apr 12, 2024•1 hr 55 min
In 2011 Dean Richard Mulligan was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Marice McGregor. Marice was reported missing by her family in April 2010 and it emerged she had not been seen or heard from in the 10 days before they approached police. For weeks police searched and appealed for information - as did Marice's family. What happened to Marice? How did she die? And what was her killer's explanation? In this episode of A Moment In Crime host Anna Leask - a senior journalis...
Mar 13, 2024•58 min
George Gwaze was tried and acquitted in 2008 and 2012 after the death of his adopted daughter 10-year-old Charlene Makaza. Charlene was rushed to hospital in a terrible state in January 2007 and died after her little body effectively shut down due to massive infection - doctors and experts unable to do anything to save her. Her family - who had moved to New Zealand from Zimbabwe for a better life - were scrutinised by police and the public. George Gwaze was then charged with sexually violating a...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Jane Furlong was 17 when she went missing from Auckland's Karangahape Rd in May 1993. Her partner Dani Norsworthy reported her missing two days after she was last seen. She was a new mum and a part time sex worker and while she'd had a troubled and turbulent life, was doing her best to carve out a future for herself. For almost two decades - despite extensive police investigations - there was no sign of Jane, no clues to what happened to her or who was responsible. In remains were finally discov...
Jan 09, 2024•42 min
In this episode of A Moment In Crime - the last for 2023 - senior journalist Anna Leask looks back at some of the country’s most brazen prison escapes, and speaks to one of the most high-profile escapees in history. Arthur Taylor spent almost a month on the run with two murderers and a robber after masterminding an escape from New Zealand’s toughest prison at Paremoremo near Auckland. You’ll also hear from others who escaped multiple times including Dean Wickliffe, and, about why inmates go on t...
Dec 29, 2023•1 hr 12 min
In 2000 Ronald Van Der Plaat became one of the country’s most infamous sex offenders when he was jailed for a litany of horrific abuse against his daughter spanning 23 years. He started raping, sexually violating and indecently assaulting his daughter Tanjas when she was just 9 when the family were living in Vanuatu. For the next 23 years, he would keep her as a sex slave, subjecting her to “bizarre and depraved” abuse which only ended when she became pregnant to him - not for the first time - a...
Nov 21, 2023•1 hr 11 min
This episode of A Moment In Crime is a follow-up from the very first episode I produced about the Christchurch terror attack. As the Coronial inquest into the mass murder begins, it's important to remember what happened and who was responsible. It's important to remember who was killed, wounded and impacted. And it's important to understand the inquest. In this episode of A Moment In Crime you will hear from the judge who sentenced the terrorist in 2020 and from those closest to the attack - sur...
Oct 19, 2023•1 hr 37 min
A Moment In Crime - The Patron - looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace. Behind his money, philanthropy and resplendence, Wallace was a serial sex offender who lured men to his mansion on the premise of discussing funding proposals or helping with projects or careers and abused them when they least expected it. Wallace’s case took years to resolve with multiple trial dates - one delayed, one aborted and the case then moved to the High Cour...
Oct 05, 2023•1 hr 7 min
A Moment In Crime - The Patron - looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace. Behind his money, philanthropy and resplendence, Wallace was a serial sex offender who lured men to his mansion on the premise of discussing funding proposals or helping with projects or careers and abused them when they least expected it. Wallace’s case took years to resolve with multiple trial dates - one delayed, one aborted and the case then moved to the High Cour...
Sep 28, 2023•44 min
A Moment In Crime is presenting a three part episode - The Patron - which looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace. Until his spectacular fall from grace, the Auckland rich lister was considered one of the biggest supporters of New Zealand film and art. Wallace was respected, revered and his help, guidance and money was sought after by many in the arts world. But behind the money and resplendence, Wallace was a serial sex offender who lured ...
Sep 21, 2023•46 min
In September 2021, Lauren Dickason killed her three daughters, six year old Liane, and two year old twins Maya and Karla, shortly after the family moved to Timaru from South Africa. For the last five weeks, Anna has been covering the trial, which this week saw a guilty verdict delivered on all three charges. As the trial has taken up a lot of Anna's time, there's no new episode of A Moment in Crime this month, but listen as she talks to The Front Page 's Damien Venuto about the case. See omnystu...
Aug 17, 2023•12 min
In 2011 an incomplete skeleton was found at a derelict property in Auckland by a demolition crew tasked with dismantling the buildings on site. It took police months to work out who the remains belonged to - and then they had to work out who had killed the young man, and why. In this episode of A Moment In Crime, journalist and host Anna Leask looks back at the grisly case and how the police finally got the man responsible. For more on this case click the links below. Dead man's last months with...
Jul 03, 2023•44 min
On May 5 2007 Lipine Sila murdered Hannah Rossiter and Jane Young and caused grievous bodily harm to eight other teens when he drove his car through a crowd outside a party in the Christchurch suburb of Edgeware. The collision took place after Sila and his brother had been involved in fights at the gathering. Sila claimed he was scared for his life and was trying to get away from people attacking him - and that he never meant to harm any of the victims. However a jury found him guilty of murder ...
May 25, 2023•58 min
In January 2008 Scottish woman Karen Aim was beaten to death while she was visiting Taupō on a trip around New Zealand. The 26-year-old was murdered in the street by a local teenager who had been vandalising a nearby school with a baseball bat. He then used the weapon to murder the innocent woman. Jahche Broughton was jailed for life and has been denied parole a number of times. In this episode of A Moment In Crime host and senior journalist Anna Leask goes back to the day Karen died, speaking t...
Apr 16, 2023•50 min
