A Coroner has announced a two-week inquest into the murder of a mother-of-four outside her Christchurch home by a mental health patient on community release.
Laisa Waka, 53, was returning from work and just metres from her family home when she was rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-stabbing-full-review-by-chdb-after-murder-accused-confirmed-as-mental-health-patient/7U27SMICERJEDVXELBBAUAICQI/">stabbed to death by Zakariye Hussein in June 2022.
Waka’s 11-year-old son was “traumatised” after watching emergency services try to save a woman outside his family home, not then knowing it was his mother.
She was the first of two women murdered by men under the care of Canterbury mental health services within two years.
Hussein was an inpatient at Hillmorton Hospital – a forensic mental health facility in Christchurch – and 10 years before the murder, had been jailed for a stabbing rampage in which he nearly killed a man.
Hussein pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years.
At sentencing, Justice Cameron Mander described the attack on Waka as “random” and “gratuitous”.
“She did nothing to provoke the attack, nor was there anything she could have done to prevent it,” he said.
“She simply had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“That anyone could be the victim of such lethal violence in such circumstances is appalling.”
Justice Mander said given Hussein’s “proclivity for violent offending” he posed “a high ongoing risk to the community”.
“What you did was ... premeditated. You deliberately armed yourself with the knife for the specific purpose of attacking an innocent victim,” he said to Hussein in court.
“All murders by their nature involve an element of brutality but, here, you deliberately stabbed Mrs Waka some eight times. Seven blows were directed to her chest area, such was your intention to kill.
“Mrs Waka was alone in a public street and completely unknown to you. She would have been completely unsuspecting of any danger to her and could never have anticipated what was about to occur.”
Justice Mander said Waka’s family and community had suffered “a terrible loss”.
“She has been described to me as a kind, caring and compassionate woman who worked hard to look after her family and to serve her community,” he said.
“Mrs Waka’s death has left a vast hole in the lives of Mrs Waka’s husband and children, whose grief is compounded no doubt by the senseless circumstances of her murder, and they have been left bereft.”
After Waka’s death, both Te Whatu Ora, and the Ministry of Health announced reviews; one into Hussein’s care, the other into the secure unit at Hillmorton.
A further review of mental health services in Canterbury was ordered in 2024 after another long-term patient murdered an innocent woman.
Elliot Cameron killed 83-year-old Faye Phelps with an axe at her Mt Pleasant home, then took a bus back to Hillmorton Hospital, where he had lived for much of the past 57 years.
In 1975, he had been detained as a special patient at the facility after shooting his 21-year-old brother Jeffrey as he lay in bed at the family’s home in Bryndwr.
Cameron was charged with murder but found guilty by reason of insanity.
In June 2025, the scathing report “Inspection into Canterbury – Waitaha Adult Inpatient and Associated Mental Health Services” was released.
It found “significant failings” with Canterbury mental health services and recommended major changes to prevent a repeat of the “tragic events” of the deaths of Waka and Phelps.
Nine key findings were made.
Critical staffing shortages were the most significant and prevailing issue, the report found, with daily struggles to maintain minimum safe staffing levels across adult inpatient, community and forensic services.
Forensic mental health services faced particular challenges, with concerns over an imbalance in the junior-to-senior staff ratio that could lead to safety risks.
Staff morale was described as poor, with reports of burnout, “a culture of blame” and “significant disruption to staff learning and development”.
Mandatory training and clinical supervision had been cut back, worsening morale and compromising safety.
This week, it has been confirmed that Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame will also look at Waka’s death.
An inquest will be held in the Christchurch District Court across two weeks in August and September.
Coroner Cunninghame is expected to hear evidence about Hussein’s placement and management at Hillmorton in the lead-up to the murder.
She will then consider whether anything can or should be done differently by any agencies in future so that similar deaths can be prevented.
Waka’s husband spoke to the Herald about his loss in 2024.
“If they kept that guy in the facility, nothing would’ve happened,” he said.
“They should be the ones who get charged … they’re the ones whose responsibility this is. They let him out.
“It’s so hard to believe that it’s happened. You can’t just take it out of your mind.”
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz