Crimes NZ

David Bain spent 13 years in prison after being found guilty of killing his family in 1994 - however he always maintained his innocence and he was acquitted in a retrial in 2009.

On the 24th of June, 1994, Robin (58) and Margaret Bain (50) and three of their children, Arawa (19), Laniet (18) and Stephen (14), were found dead in their Dunedin home.

Four days later, the only surviving family member - 22 year-old David Bain - was arrested for their murders.

Martin van Beynan's written extensively on the Bain family murders, including his own podcast Black Hands.

David Bain was found guilty of murder in 1995 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

But in 2009, he was acquitted at a retrial.

Stuff senior reporter Martin van Baynen sat through the three month retrial and does not believe the evidence pointing to Robin Bain being the murder stacks up.

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The presiding judge described the death of Delcelia Witika as one of the most disturbing cases of child abuse to come before the High Court. David Mcloughlin covered the case.

Delcelia Witika's mother and stepfather were both were sentenced to 16 years in jail, for her manslaughter.

A judge described this case as the most disturbing to come before the High Court.

Delcelia was just two years old when she died as a result of peritonitis, caused by blows to her stomach.

Former Herald journalist, David McLoughlin, recalls covering the case and the dramatic revelation of a video showing the couple partying while the toddler was at home dying.

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In November 1990, thirteen people were shot and killed in the seaside village of Aramoana. Tim Ashton was a member of the anti-terrorism squad that was sent in to stop the gunman.

Thirty-three year-old David Gray began shooting after a confrontation with one of his neighbours over a dog.

By the end of his rampage, 13 people were dead and several others were injured.

The police's anti-terrorism squad was sent in to stop David Gray's shooting rampage.

It is New Zealand's second deadliest mass shooting, after the Christchurch mosque attacks which saw 51 people killed.

Tim Ashton was a member of the Anti-Terrorist Squad who was sent in to stop Gray. He shares his recollections of the day and his subsequent battle to change gun legislation.

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David Ross was jailed in 2013 for running a ponzi scheme that resulted in thousands of New Zealand investors losing millions of dollars.

David Ross, the former director of the failed company Ross Asset Management, was jailed in November 2013 for 10 years and 10 months, with a minimum non-parole period of half that time.

The ponzi scheme he'd been running collapsed in 2012, owing investors $115 million.

Ross's fraudulent scheme was frozen in 2012 with 200 investors who had made money and 600 who lost money.

A year later, he pleaded guilty to charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Markets Authority.

At the conclusion of the trial, Judge Denys Barry called Ross a liar and a thief and said the scale of his offending is unprecedented in New Zealand.

Former New Zealand Herald Wellington business editor Hamish Rutherford describes how he came to follow the story and what he discovered.

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In 1987, pig hunters stumbled upon the body of Robert Gawith kicking off a murder inquiry with links to the infamous Mr Asia drug syndicate.

It was a case that sparked headlines like 'NZ's Bonnie and Clyde' or 'Lawless Lovers' when it was discovered that a couple with links to the Mr Asia crime syndicate were behind the murder of 23 year-old Robert Gawith.

Robert Gawith was celebrating a hefty payout when he was brutally murdered by couple Patrick and Jennifer Norton-Bennett.

Former police officer, Wayne Kiely worked on the case and talks about how the death of the young man was solved and became the undoing of a key player in the Mr Asia Drug syndicate.

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In the early hours of July 8, 2010, Scott Guy was gunned down at his farm gate. Police suspected his brother-in-law, but he was found not-guilty and no one else has been held accountable for the killing.

Thirty-one year old Scott Guy was on his way to work, it was just a regular day, when he was murdered in his driveway.

He had no known enemies and there were very few clues to point to who might have wanted him dead.

Eventually, police discovered there had been tensions between Guy and his brother-in-law Ewen Macdonald and that Macdonald had committed a string of other crimes in the neighbourhood.

They arrested him for murder, but he was found not-guilty.

Stuff Investigative journalist Mike White discusses why the police case against Ewen Macdonald failed and who else might have been responsible for Scott Guy's murder.

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In 1960, police discovered the body of a man in a central Auckland apartment, but it is the disappearance of his wife, Cynthia Grierson Jackson that has baffled police for more than half a decade.

Neighbours describe one night where there were loud voices coming from the apartment of Cynthia Grierson Jackson and her husband, Michael.

Otherwise, there was nothing to suggest the grisly scene police would discover a couple of days later.

Scott Bainbridge, author of Without a Trace, investigated the disappearance of Cynthia Grierson Jackson and police discovered Michael Grierson Jackson died of blood loss after castrating himself.

His wife has never been found.

The only lead police had is that days before his death, Michael returned Cynthia's uniform to her workplace and told her colleagues she had left him.

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Six people were killed and four injured when Stephen Anderson took his father's shotgun and went on a rampage in the sleepy North Island settlement of Raurimu, in 1997. Michael Morrah interviewed Anderson and tells his story.

When Stephen Anderson saw his parents and their friends eating breakfast at the family bach in Raurimu, he became convinced they were part of a conspiracy to end the world.

His actions led to one of the worst massacre's in New Zealand's history.

Stephen Anderson was found not guilty of the murders or attempted murders by reason of insanity.

He was granted limited release from a psychiatric facility in 2009.

Newshub investigations reporter Michael Morrah interviewed Stephen Anderson several years ago, and describes what was going through Anderson's mind on the day of the murders.

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In the winter of 1954, two schoolgirls - Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme - murdered Pauline's mother on a remote walking track in Christchurch. Author Peter Graham recounts the events leading to Honora Parker's death.

On June 22,1954, Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker went for tea and a walk at Victoria Park in Christchurch's Port Hills with Pauline's mother, Honorah Parker.

It was there, on one of the park's remote walking tracks, that the teenage girls brutally killed Pauline's mother.

True crime writer Peter Graham wrote a book about the case called So Brilliantly Clever and he describes how 16-year-old Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, 15, became two of New Zealand's most notorious murderers.

Fearing separation, they came to believe Honora Parker was the only thing standing in the way of their being together.

At trial, the pair were found guilty but due to their age and lack of proper holding facilities for them, they only served about five years in prison.

Juliet Hulme later changed her name to Anne Perry and became a successful writer. Both she and Parker now live in the United Kingdom.

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Barrister Simon Shamy describes the tragic murder of Ruby Knox. He represented Donella Knox who admitted killing her daughter.

In May 2016, Donella Knox sedated and then smothered her 21-year-old daughter, Ruby.

She was sent to jail for four years.

Donella had been the sole carer for her daughter Ruby for 20 years.

Ruby was severely autistic and intellectually disabled. She could not speak, was violent and needed constant care.

Mr Shamy said mother and daughter loved each other very much, and had no one but each other.

"The level of pain and suffering that Ms Knox has undergone for 20 years on her own and now for the rest of her life is unparalled in my experience," he said.

In sentencing Ms Knox, Justice Joe Williams described the case as "once in a generation" which made a life sentence manifestly unjust.

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