Murder accused appears in court charged with fatal Auckland prison stabbing

An inmate at a South Auckland prison accused of stabbing two fellow inmates — one fatally — only days before Christmas has entered not guilty pleas to the charges.

The 47-year-old appeared today in the High Court at Auckland, where his lawyer asked that interim name suppression continue.

The identity of the man who died at the scene of the December 21 stabbing has also been suppressed on an interim basis.

Justice Mathew Downs set a two-week trial date for March next year.

Authorities said in December that two men had been attacked in a kitchen area at the Auckland South Corrections Facility men’s prison in Wiri about 11.40am that day.

“One man was found unresponsive and was worked on by medical staff, but sadly, he died at the scene,” Detective Inspector Warrick Adkin said at the time.

“Another man has been injured and transported to hospital in a serious condition.”

The prison, which can hold up to 960 men, is operated by private company Serco under an agreement with the Department of Corrections.

The defendant, who was transferred to another prison after the incident, appeared at the Manukau District Court the next day via audio-video link, but attended today’s High Court hearing in person.

In addition to the trial date, Justice Downs scheduled a hearing for April to determine if name suppression will remain in place before the trial.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.