Former Waitōtara fire station blaze caused by electrical fault
Fire and Emergency NZ crews were notified of the fire about 11.45pm on Saturday, August 2.
A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said the fire at the former fire station on Kaipo St had been classified as accidental and
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Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Videos from mushroom murder trial released
Footage of Erin Patterson speaking with detectives at the table where she served her deadly lunch has been released, almost a month after she was convicted of three murders. The Victorian Supreme Court has also released a second clip of Patterson disposing of a food dehydrator, which was used as critical evidence to prosecute the convicted mushroom cook killer. Patterson, 50, was found guilty on July 7 of murdering her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, and the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson. The jury found she deliberately served the four people beef Wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home in regional Victoria on July 29, 2023. Both videos were played during the 11-week trial in Morwell. The first clip is dated August 2, 2023, and shows CCTV of Patterson dumping a food dehydrator at Koonwarra Transfer Station. She is seen getting out of her red SUV and pulling a black dehydrator from the boot before she placed it in an e-waste bin inside a green shed. The dehydrator, which police seized from a tip days after the meal, contained traces of death cap mushrooms. The other video released, dated August 5, 2023, shows Patterson sitting at her dining table with Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell. Leaning on her hand, Patterson appears to engage in conversation in the moments following a police raid on her home, during which electronic items, including a phone and computer were seized. Det Sgt Farrell is heard thanking Patterson for her patience before requesting her phone and asking for the passcode. She then hands over the phone. The Supreme Court had released dozens of pieces of evidence that helped prosecutors secure the convictions within hours of the guilty verdicts in July. They included photos showing remnants of beef Wellington leftovers as they were tested by toxicologists, after police found them inside a bin at Patterson's home A video of Patterson discharging herself from Leongatha Hospital minutes after she had arrived was also previously released, while images of her at the hospital revealed a pink phone police say they never recovered. Patterson, who is facing the possibility of life behind bars, will return to court for a pre-sentence hearing later in 2025. After her sentence is handed down, she will have 28 days to file an appeal.
NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Free Speech Union's bid to reshape InternetNZ: The results are in, with a late twist
A surge of people duly joined InternetNZ (annual dues: $21). As of February 1, the incorporated society had 383 members, a number its chairman Stephen Judd said had been stable for years. By the time of its board election and annual meeting last week there were 4462 eligible voting members. Things hung in the balance, with it not being clear how many of the newcomers had answered Ayling's call and how many were aiming to counter the FSU incursion. Auditor Grant Thornton says 62.4% of eligible members cast votes – up from 43% last year. FSU wins one of two open seats, none of 12 motions Two of eight board positions were up for grabs, with 13 candidates in contention. Ayling won one of the open seats with 929 votes. The other was picked up by Dylan Reeve (1372 votes), whose varied career includes being the creative partner to journalist David Farrier, who will never make the FSU's Christmas card list. Reeve, 45, who has researched and published articles on online fraud, abuse and conspiracy theories, has often questioned why companies like Facebook don't do more to enforce their rules – and why various authorities don't do more to clamp down on illegitimate or harmful content. A second FSU-affiliated candidate, Christchurch lawyer Douglas Brown (a member of the FSU's council), failed to get elected. In a twist, Ayling quit as FSU chief executive on Saturday. No reason was given for his departure after four years in the role and he could not be immediately reached for comment. All candidates stood as individuals, so his FSU resignation does not impact his new InternetNZ role. The FSU announced over the weekend its chief executive Jonathan Ayling had resigned, with no reason given. The ginger group's deputy chairwoman Jillaine Heather was named temporary CEO. The board election was followed by InternetNZ's annual general meeting, which was held online and attracted about 1000 people. FSU supporters David Farrar and retired District Court judge David Harvey put 12 motions, each seeking changes to InternetNZ's constitution. None were carried. InternetNZ board elections are only held once a year, meaning any FSU takeover was always going to be a long-term project. Critic turned insider Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how Reeve goes as an insider. Notwithstanding the FSU's rhetoric, InternetNZ has traditionally advocated for a 'free and open' internet and defaulted to a hands-off approach. The aftermath of the Christchurch mosque massacres, when it took 'emergency measures' to make certain sites effectively inaccessible to New Zealanders, was an outlier. Stephen Judd is chairman of InternetNZ, which had income of $15.1 million last year, mostly through wholesaling .nz addresses. The funds go to technical admin to keep our internet running smoothly, plus education and community grants. Former domain name system (DNS) engineer Reeve, who has been notably methodical and even-handed in his various investigations of harmful content, has at times questioned why InternetNZ has taken so long to act against the likes of malicious .nz sites registered with fake details, including, 'parking fee' site recently imitating Auckland Transport and another pretending to be footwear maker Vans. InternetNZ's Domain Name Commission says it acts to review a site's registration if it receives a complaint. Reeve told the Herald the AGM included some ideas for more proactive measures against sites run by bad actors. But that was outside his motivation for seeking an InternetNZ seat. 'I stood for the board because I felt that a well-resourced reactionary group was trying to take control and it wasn't something I was comfortable with,' he said. 'I'm curious to see how things will progress now that most of their efforts to exercise their power have fallen through.' Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald's business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Auckland Airport crash: Arvind Kummar dies, wife injured on way to Fiji for a funeral
Arvind Kummar was killed in a 4am car accident on George Bolt Memorial Drive near Auckland Airport. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Auckland Airport crash: Arvind Kummar dies, wife injured on way to Fiji for a funeral Arvind Kummar was killed in a 4am car accident on George Bolt Memorial Drive near Auckland Airport. A man killed in a three-car crash near Auckland Airport was about to drop his wife off for a flight to Fiji where she was attending a funeral. Arvind Kummar, 45, died in a crash about 4am on George Bolt Memorial Drive, the main road leading to the airport. His wife Jashoda Goundar was injured in the crash, which temporarily closed the road on Wednesday morning last week. A close family friend told the Herald Kummar's wife is recovering from serious spinal injuries in Middlemore Hospital. 'They were driving to the airport. The wife was going to Fiji. Arvind was going to drop her and then get to work,' the friend, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
