Kanwarpal Singh admitted murdering AUT law student Farzana Yaqubi. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Kanwarpal Singh admitted murdering AUT law student Farzana Yaqubi. Photo / Jason Oxenham
On December 6 last year Farzana Yaqubi walked into the Henderson Police Station to make a formal statement about the stalking and harassment she was enduring from Kanwarpal Singh.
Thirteen days later Singh stabbed her to death as she walked home from work.
Details of the two policecomplaints Yaqubi made before her death along with the months of harassment she suffered from Singh can now be reported.
Sweeping suppression of the facts of the case were finally lifted at Singh’s sentencing for murder at the Auckland High Court this morning.
Yaqubi made a statement about Singh’s stalking behaviour and gave officers screenshots of Singh’s messages.
The next day Singh had a pizza delivered to her home in Massey.
Two weeks later, on December 18, Yaqubi finished work at the Westgate Mall and caught the bus to Royal Heights.
She got off the bus and walked to an alleyway near the Waitakere Badminton Centre on her way to the home she shared with her family in Cedar Heights Ave.
Police after Yaqubi was stabbed to death. Photo / Lincoln Tan
Singh was waiting in the car park of the centre in his Toyota.
When he saw her walking in the alleyway he approached her wielding a large knife.
Acting Detective Inspector Tim Williams earlier told the Heraldon Sunday that in the early stages of the investigation, staff became aware of recent contact Yaqubi had with police.
In late October 2022, Yaqubi filed an online report with police about “harassing behaviour”, Williams said.
“Farzana was advised to attend a police station to provide further information so the matter could be considered for further action, which was carried out in early December 2022.
“Police were progressing this matter further when Farzana was senselessly murdered.”
Police referred the matter to the IPCA to explore “whether there could have been improvements in the police response”, Williams said.
“Police will await the findings of this independent review so that any findings can be considered further.
“While nothing can bring her back, the guilty plea, in this case, will spare the family this matter going to a jury trial,” Williams said.
“Police continue to support Farzana’s family as they move forward with their lives.”
Stalking legislation
The Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children coordinator Leonie Morris told the Herald the coalition believed Yaqubi’s death could have been prevented if New Zealand had criminalised stalking.
“Currently various types of stalking and harassment are referred to in different pieces of legislation (primarily the Harassment Act and the Harmful Digital Communications Act) but this leaves many victim/survivors unprotected.
“Stalking is unwanted repetitive and persistent intrusions into a person’s life. It is usually designed to control the victim, and it can be terrifying. It is a known risk factor/precursor for severe and sometimes fatal violence.”
Morris said New Zealand’s “outdated and piecemeal legislation” meant that stalking was not illegal in New Zealand. It is illegal in Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA, she said.
“The Government needs to make stalking illegal by adding it to the Crimes Act. This would keep everybody safer, particularly women.”
She said currently police “lack the tools” they need to protect victims from stalking.
Morris said adding stalking to the Crimes Act would ensure police were trained about stalking and its harms, raise public awareness, and allow data about stalking to be collected.
Yaqubi was remembered as a quiet, loving and diligent young woman.
Yaqubi was an observant Shia and planned to shortly head to Karbala in Iraq for her pilgrimage.
The family member remembered Yaqubi as quiet, diligent and loved by children.
“My kids, they keep telling me they miss her and asking for her to come back,” he said.
‘Stalking is associated with homicide’
Clinical psychologist Dr Alison Towns also said this was just the type of case that a criminal stalking law, alongside full education and training of the police, would have potentially prevented.
Towns, who is a gender-based violence specialist, said stalking is associated with homicide and it should be considered to be an extremely serious offence.
“Police in the UK who have ignored stalking behaviour, despite complaints from the victim, and when the victim has subsequently been killed, have been charged with negligence and sacked. The same should be happening here.”
She told the Herald most other countries in the developed world have a criminal stalking law, and while a person can be charged with criminal harassment under the NZ Harassment Act 1997, this rarely occurs.
“The most at-risk women are those women who are stalked by ex-partners or by those who consider themselves entitled to have a relationship with that woman when she is not, or is no longer, interested. When the police act on stalking, they can potentially prevent a homicide.”
What might appear to some to be trivial intrusions into the women’s life, if persistent, unwanted and unrelenting, can be extremely dangerous, she said.
“Victims of stalking are often good predictors of their own safety, and there may be [many] more incidents of the stalking than she reports. Stalking causes extreme harm to victims, who commonly feel that they cannot go about their daily lives safely.”
Over time, she said their sleep, mental health, ability to work and attend education becomes eroded.
“If the woman has children, her children are also affected. Victims (and their children) commonly do not feel safe in their own homes.”
Reporter Martha and friends are in Minginui introducing us to their favourite four-legged neighbours, wild but friendly horses that have had free reign of the place since 1870.
