Midday Report Essentials for Tuesday 10 June 2025
health transport 27 minutes ago
In today's episode, Hillmorton patient Elliot Cameron has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 83-year-old Frances Anne Phelps, locals in the Northland town of Moerewa are taking it upon themselves to clean up burnt out cars and scorched rubber left behind from street racers, there has been a 25 percent decrease in the number of 16 to 25-year-olds who have donated blood at least once in a two-year period since 2020, and a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato, Waitomo, and Taranaki.
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RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Far North town Moerewa burned out on burnouts
Police say the organisers are cooperating with police. Photo: 123RF Community leaders in the small Far North town of Moerewa are calling for a long-standing culture of doing "burnouts" to end before it ends in tragedy. According to locals, people burning rubber and smoking up homes was a weekly occurrence. Roddy Hapati Pihema said there were burnout marks on almost every street in Moerewa. Pihema, who headed the Taumatamakuku Community Residents Representative Committee, said the problem was so widespread even the police did not know how to deal with it. "The police have basically given up. Half the community wants the behaviour to stop but you still have this generation where it has become part of their modern-day culture. "At a tangi, they might go out and do burnouts on the road. It's the same when people have their 21st or a big birthday. "It's become part of the culture of not just Moerewa, but everywhere you look in the North." For Pihema, the issue was personal. He said a relative of his was killed when he was struck on a footpath by a motorcyclist who was doing burnouts at night about 20 years ago. "I've felt what it's like when things go terribly wrong when you lose a family member that way. "This is not the type of culture that we need to be passing on to the next generation. The thrill of doing burnouts should never ever be more important than the safety of our community and our community members." In 2015, Pihema said students at Moerewa Primary gave a letter to the mayor and police, asking them to make their town safer. Piehma - also the local board member for the Moerewa Kawakawa subdivision - said they had tried to honour this request by introducing mitigators like speed bumps. But he said the local board and police were under-resourced, and needed support to address the issue. Moerewa. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia Moerewa Civil Defence volunteer and Otiria Marae trustee, Mike Butler, said burnouts were causing a myriad of issues but some residents were too intimidated to speak up. "When a person does a burnout, tyre smoke goes into people and kaumata and kuia's homes. "Rubber left on the roads causes a massive headache. It blocks up our drains, and when we get Mother Nature at her best it can't handle it because of all the blockages of debris, rubbish, leaves and also tyres." He said children walking to school were also cutting their feet on pieces of smashed glass. Another resident, Pamela-Ann Simon-Baragwanath, said locals were cleaning up the mess left behind by street racers every week. "When they do these burnouts they dump rubbish in large volumes. I cleaned up the old KiwiRail entrance four or five months ago and we pulled out about seven to eight trailer loads to the max, we hand-pulled all of that out and took it to the dump." She said the litter was seeping into the waterways and attracting rats, and the community was fed up. She wanted to see more cameras installed as a deterrent, and burnouts contained to a location that would not cause ongoing problems. Police and the Far North District Council have been contacted for comment. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
LynnMall attack inquest: Police set to give evidence
Photo: Supplied Warning: This story contains graphic details that may upset some readers. The coronial inquest into the death of LynnMall attacker Ahamed Samsudeen continues on Wednesday, after a forensic pathologist explained why he had zero chance of surviving as many as a dozen gunshot wounds . Samsudeen stabbed four women and one man with a kitchen knife at a Countdown supermarket in Auckland's New Lynn in 2021, before being shot and killed by police. Two others were injured trying to stop him from harming others. Forensic pathologist Dr Kilak Kesha conducted the post-mortem on Samsudeen after his death. He told the inquest the attacker died quickly from the gunshot wounds, describing four of them as rapidly fatal because they pierced vital organs. Kesha described a bullet that passed through the left side of Samsudeen's chest, while being questioned by police counsel Alysha McClintock. "That's one of the wounds that you considered may have been among those the most rapidly fatal?" McClintock asked. 'Yes, because it passed through the spleen, and the intestines," Kesha said. Kesha described some of the other gunshot wounds and the impact these had on Samsudeen's body. "It passed through the heart, the lungs, causing significant bleeding. This one passed through the aorta, the liver, the stomach, and small bowel, causing blood to accumulate in the abdomen." Ross Tomlinson. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi Earlier in the inquest, survivor Ross Tomlinson described how he used nappies from the supermarket shelves to help with Samsudeen's wounds after he was shot . A former paramedic with a decade's experience, he said he believed Samsudeen could not have been saved. McClintock asked Kesha what impact as many as a dozen gunshot wounds would have. "Is there anything else that you would add about the overall impact on the human body of receiving a total of potentially up to 12 gunshot wounds?" she said. "After the autopsy, looking at all the injuries, survivability is zero," Kesha replied. Coroner Marcus Elliott asked about Samsudeen's movements in the moments after he was shot. "Death is not instantaneous - it takes time to bleed, your heart's got to pump and that blood's got to be lost through the broken vessels," Kesha said. "People can walk, they can stumble, they can take a few steps, it depends how rapidly the blood is lost." "So if he had formed the intention at that point to charge, to use that word, it would have been possible for him to do so?" Elliott asked, with Kesha responding that was correct. The inquest continues on Wednesday with evidence from police officers. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
14 hours ago
- RNZ News
Prolific shoplifter who reoffended after being bailed 13 times says she ‘stole to survive'
By By Belinda Feek, Open Justice reporter of Bianca Thomas is estimated to have stolen about $10,000 worth of groceries, clothing and petrol between July and December. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller A prolific shoplifter with a "major problem" stealing from retail outlets and supermarkets says she was stealing "to survive". "I can't get by on the $120 I get per week from Winz," Bianca Crystal Thomas told police after being arrested in August last year. The 23-year-old spent many months of 2024 filling trolleys full of groceries or concealing clothing on herself and leaving stores, either in Hamilton or Auckland, without paying. Judge Noel Cocurullo noted during her sentencing in the Hamilton District Court today that she had been granted bail 13 times and reoffended each time. "You left court on bail and went back out and continued to steal. "You did that on a large number of occasions. "Regrettably, and sadly, Miss Thomas, the only way we could stop you from stealing was to remand you in custody." She is estimated to have stolen about $10,000 worth of groceries, clothing and petrol between July and December. That time behind bars "has been a wake-up call for her", Thomas' counsel Rhiannon Scott told the judge as she urged him not to send her client to jail on 42 theft, trespass and driving while suspended charges. But Judge Cocurullo said he struggled to believe that given the repetitive nature of her offending. Thomas was trespassed from all Countdown - now Woolworths - supermarkets in Hamilton and its wider surrounds in January 2024. Between August and December last year, she committed 13 petrol drive-offs around the Waikato and Auckland regions. On 10 of those occasions, she was driving either her own or her mother's car displaying either stolen or crudely altered registration plates; she used black tape to try to amend a letter or number. Court documents describe Thomas as a "recidivist shoplifter" who is "increasing in aggression". In June last year, she went into Woolworths St Lukes, filled a small trolley with $270 worth of groceries and left without paying. The following month, she and a co-offender went to the men's department in Farmers Chartwell and picked out five hoodies and a pair of pants. The pair went into a changing room to try to conceal them before walking out. The stolen clothing was worth about $500. Two days later, Thomas and an accomplice went to Farmers at The Base in Hamilton and put pants, socks and a T-shirt into her co-offender's backpack. This time, they were stopped and handed the items back. On 17 July, she was in Auckland at St Luke's Woolworths and stole about $1200 worth of produce, meat, seafood and beer. The following month, Thomas filled a basket full of menswear items from Farmers Glenfield after being spotted by security. When confronted by the store manager, she became "angry" and snatched the basket back before running off with the items. Woolworths Herne Bay, Birkenhead, Milford and Rototuna were all targeted in August last year. When arrested, she told police: "I only steal to survive. I can't get by on the $120 I get per week from Winz." Thomas then struck at New World Hillcrest and Pak'nSave Mill St within a day of each other in February this year, with co-offenders, stealing a further $350 of grocery items. Scott and Judge Cocurullo briefly butted heads over Thomas' behaviour on bail. Scott said her client shouldn't get an uplift for offending on bail because of the totality principle, which effectively prevents a sentence from becoming excessively long. "She's going to get one," the judge responded. "It's significant ... I count 13 occasions she was released from the court on bail. "She had chance after chance, and her response was to steal." Thomas had engaged with the Mason Clinic and if she was sentenced to home detention, she would also get support from Oranga Tamariki, which would pay for counselling, clothing, food allowances and housing. As for what would stop her offending, Scott said her client's time in custody "has certainly been a wake-up call for her". Judge Cocorullo was not in the mood to mince his words today. "You have a major problem with stealing from retailers. "You have gone out and systemically and profoundly stolen again, bringing you to court and releasing you on bail did not stop you from doing that on a large number of occasions. "All of this retail stealing affects retailers' bottom lines and their fiscal viability. "The breadth and seriousness of your offending, together with aspects of deterrence and denunciation, means that, for you, Miss Thomas, regretfully, I do not get to the position where I can give you home detention. "The only sentence I can properly land, given how expansive your offending is, is a sentence of imprisonment." Thomas, who was supported in court by her mother, sister and brother, was jailed for 21 months and disqualified from driving for six months. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
