Graphic content warning: This story discusses extreme violence and includes distressing images
Graphic images of a couple smeared in blood and one clutching a knife as a man with a slashed jugular lies dying during a “frenzied killing” can now be published after still photos were released by a court.
A judge has also granted the release of video footage showing the moment homicide victim Finauga Faatoia burst into the couple’s Mt Wellington home armed with a Bear Grylls “survival knife” in a bungled eviction bid which ended in the 40-year-old’s violent death.
The bizarre case played out during a high-profile four-week murder trial late last year at the Auckland High Court.
The Herald applied for two sets of video footage after it was shown to the jury.
Faatoia had been hired as “muscle” by his landlady Rebecca Allcock to help evict two troublesome tenants who she claimed were behind on their rent and dealing drugs.
He expected to earn “big money” for the job, telling Allcock he might need to “rough them up a bit” to get them out, to which she responded: “I’m fine with that”.
Faatoia – a husband and father described by his family as a “gentle giant” – drove to the couple’s Tumori Place townhouse on a motorbike on August 31, 2024 armed with two blades, a wire garrotte and rope, smashed his way into their bedroom and threatened them with a large knife.
After being hemmed into a tiny ensuite bathroom by Faatoia, the boyfriend grabbed his own orange handled hunting knife and plunged it into Faatoia’s neck after he allegedly attacked the girlfriend on the bed.
A 111 call played in court appeared to show Faatoia “gagging and gurgling” as he bled out over several minutes from a 15cm neck wound.
As Faatoia lay dying, the couple dragged him outside on to a patio and rained blows at his prone body with their hands and feet, before the boyfriend stabbed him twice more in the buttocks and back of the head.
Parts of the “furious and frenzied” patio attack were captured on CCTV.
The boyfriend was charged with Faatoia’s murder and his partner with being a party to murder. But they were acquitted in November after claiming they had acted in self-defence.
The Herald requested access to video footage taken on the girlfriend’s mobile phone of Faatoia bursting into the bedroom wearing full military fatigues and a tactical belt, and the CCTV patio attack footage, which showed the boyfriend clutching a bloodied knife in both hands raised above his head.
The Herald argued the footage had been played in open court, was of public interest and provided important context about the violent events on that day.
Justice James MacGillivray granted access to the phone recording. However, he refused to release the CCTV footage, instead granting access to a limited selection of still images after considering submissions from defence lawyers and the Herald.
While the CCTV footage was also shown in open court, the judge ruled Faatoia’s family had an interest in maintaining the deceased’s dignity and avoiding additional psychological trauma.
He also said the couple had been acquitted of Faatoia’s murder and had a “legitimate privacy interest in avoiding additional distress”.
The grainy phone recording shows Faatoia storming the couple’s bedroom, yelling, “Get the f*** out” and “police won’t get here by the time I’m done with you”.
The armed intruder, who stood 1.88m tall and weighed 115kg, is seen blocking the bedroom entrance after bashing through the barricaded door.
He picks up a chair and throws it across the room before reaching behind his back and grabbing the blade from his belt.
As the girlfriend says they will leave, the boyfriend pleads with Faatoia, saying, “Brother, don’t pull that on me brother. That’s a breach of my rights”.
After cornering the boyfriend in the bathroom, Faatoia then turns towards the woman when he realises she is filming him.
Still holding the knife, he moves towards her on the bed, demanding her phone.
The footage then ends.
The court heard the boyfriend stabbed Faatoia from behind to protect his girlfriend, later telling police, “I stabbed his throat out. I head-locked him and twisted his head on the knife”.
Though fatally injured and bleeding heavily from his severed jugular, Faatoia continued to fight and the two men fell struggling to the bedroom floor, the defence claimed.
The woman then tried to grab Faatoia’s knife from his hand, cutting her finger in the process.
Crown prosecutors claimed what happened next was “gratuitous” and totally unnecessary.
After dragging a fatally-injured Faatoia through a sliding door to the patio, the couple allegedly “finished him off”.
As the boyfriend stomped, kicked and stabbed Faatoia, the girlfriend admitted yelling, “Get him, get him before he gets us”.
She then joined in the attack, kicking and stomping a dying Faatoia with her bare feet.
“It’s difficult evidence to watch,” prosecutor Claire Paterson told the jury. “Quite frankly it is over the top.
“It went well beyond what was needed in self-defence.”
However, defence lawyers argued the couple believed they were going to be killed and their use of violence was reasonable in the circumstances.
While “perhaps gratuitous”, the patio attack was largely irrelevant to the case because, unlike the initial neck wound, the injuries inflicted were “insignificant” and did not contribute to Faatoia’s death, the court heard.
The jury were allowed to return majority verdicts when they could not reach a unanimous decision.
When the not guilty verdicts were read out, there were gasps from the public gallery, with one man storming out of court and one of the defendants weeping quietly in the dock.
The couple cannot be named for legal reasons.
Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.
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