Herald crime and justice reporter Anna Leask recently marked 20 years in journalism.
Over the years, she has covered many of New Zealand’s most significant events, including the Pike River mine disaster, the Christchurch earthquakes and terror attack, the target="_self" rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/a-moment-in-crime-podcast-61-seconds-of-horror-the-ashburton-winz-murders/LYTD3TXNUB2FM26PUQLEJI2ITE/">Ashburton Winz shootings and the Gallipoli centenary.
Alongside these, she has reported from numerous high-profile court cases, including the murders of the Dickason children, Grace Millane, Scott Guy and the Mama Hooch and John Muchirahondo sex assault trials – along with major coronial inquests and the nation’s most complex police investigations and cold cases.
Today, Leask – who also writes and hosts Herald podcast A Moment In Crime – reflects on some of the most memorable stories of her career.
In 2006, Christchurch importer Jeffrey Richard Barker, 52, was convicted of scarring two teenage girls in a bondage dungeon he had built at home, featuring a rack, surgeon’s table and suspension room.
He was acquitted of indecent assault, but received nine months’ home detention and fines. Barker appealed, claiming consent, and the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions; the Crown did not retry him.
Previously, in 1996, he served 21 months for indecent acts against a 15-year-old.
In December 2017, Barker was found dead in a Lyttelton carpark, wrapped in chains, having died from a pulmonary embolism during a suicide attempt.
In 1990, two newborn girls were accidentally switched at Timaru Hospital, leaving both South Island families devastated.
Born hours apart, the babies were briefly left together while their mothers were moved to the ward, and identification bracelets were lost or never attached.
Each girl went home with the wrong parents, and the error went unnoticed for nearly three years.
DNA tests later confirmed the swap after one mother, Sandra, questioned paternity.
Initial shared-care arrangements collapsed and by age 10, both girls were living with the other parents.
In 2017, Phillip Barnes, then chief executive of International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ), secretly installed a hidden camera in an Auckland gym changing room, capturing six victims in various states of undress.
Police later discovered over 39,000 images and a dozen videos.
Barnes admitted making intimate visual recordings, but initially argued public exposure would cause “extreme hardship” to IANZ, leading to years of suppression orders.
After multiple appeals, the Supreme Court ruled the secrecy unjustified, revealing Barnes’ identity and offending.
He later attributed his actions to a long-standing pornography addiction and poor mental health, describing the offences as a “sad crisis point” and pledging they would never recur, expressing remorse to victims, family and the community.
On February 27, 2013, Adam Strange, 47, a television commercial director and father, was fatally attacked by sharks while completing a training swim at Muriwai Beach.
Strange was seen waving for help before other beachgoers called 111.
He had inadvertently swum into a feeding frenzy of sharks targeting fish and birds.
The police Eagle helicopter spotted the attack and guided a rescue team in an inflatable boat with three lifeguards.
An officer used a rifle to shoot at the shark, which released Strange’s body before sinking.
Strange was remembered as a “great and glorious” father and a “firecracker of a mate”.
In December 2018, Xi Wang, 34, was brutally murdered in her South Auckland home by her estranged husband while holding their 2-year-old son.
The attack came days after the high-profile killing of Grace Millane that overshadowed Wang’s death.
Ephraim Joseph Beazley, a Rotorua farm worker, drove to her Flat Bush home armed with a sharpened hunting knife.
When Wang answered the door, he stabbed her 18 times in the neck, legs and genitals in less than a minute, then fled and later confessed to police.
Wang died in hospital that night.
In April 2019, Beazley was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 17 years before parole.
Justice Simon Moore described the murder as “brutal, calculated, and merciless,” noting the toddler’s survival as “a stroke of good luck.”
Court documents revealed Beazley had long harboured resentment over child support and the relationship breakdown, planning Wang’s killing in advance.
In late 2017, Oriwa Kemp spoke publicly for the first time about her life following her involvement in the 2007 abuse death of 3-year-old Nia Glassie.
Kemp, 17 at the time, was convicted of ill-treatment and assault for failing to intervene during Nia’s abuse and for minor assaults on her and her siblings.
Born in 1990 in Rotorua, Kemp’s childhood was marked by instability, absent parenting and early exposure to gangs, drugs and violent relationships
She had her first child at 14 and went on to have four more – all removed at birth by authorities.
In her interview she spoke about her latest pregnancy, saying she had worked to rebuild her life through drug and counselling programs and staying clean for the first time since adolescence.
She acknowledged her past mistakes and expressed commitment to being a mother to her youngest child, aiming to create a stable, positive life with the support of her whānau and community.
In 2009, Javed Mills, 25, left his rural Auckland home to pursue a music career. Less than three months later, he was dead.
After a confrontation at their Auckland home, Mills was fatally assaulted by his mate, James Grant Cooper.
The 25-year-old then dismembered Mills’ body and hid the parts around a property, including in a garage in Mt Wellington.
For nearly three years, Cooper sent fake messages to Mills’ family, attempting to convince them he was still alive.
Mills’ incomplete skeleton, missing its skull, was discovered in September 2011 during demolition work, revealing the grim truth.
Cooper was convicted of manslaughter in 2013 and sentenced to seven years and three months. He was released on parole in 2018.
In 2018, Kasmeer Lata was jailed for using her teenage daughter as a sex slave and selling her body to men some 1000 times over a two-year period. Following Lata’s sentencing, the teenage victim spoke to Leask about her ordeal.
Lata began working as a prostitute to support her family financially and told her 14-year-old daughter she needed to start doing the same to help.
Despite refusing, the teen was sold for the first time the day she turned 15.
Lata initially said the teen had to work for only a few months, but there was no end to it.
“I told my mum I didn’t want to do it … after three months I said the time period had finished and I didn’t want to do it anymore, but she refused to let me stop,” she said.
Lata placed advertisements for her daughter – in which she lied about her age – on the New Zealand Girls online escort agency website, other sites and in the Herald.
She would have sex with men at the family home. But as more men began to request the teen, her mother began taking her to motels around Auckland for as many as five “appointments” a day, each appointment costing up to $200 an hour.
Lata placed advertisements for her daughter, in which she lied about her age, on the New Zealand Girls online escort agency website, other sites and in the Herald.
Eventually, the teenager confided in a friend and they researched sex trafficking and slavery, and that helped her decide to go to the police.
A West Auckland couple were jailed for extreme abuse and neglect of their three young children, aged 9, 3 and 1, in conditions described as “despicable and sickening” byJudge Nevin Dawson. The children were confined to their rooms, often starving on little more than white bread, rarely bathed, and dressed in filthy clothes, while the home was buried in rubbish and soiled nappies.
The father, linked to the Headhunters gang, physically abused the children, including punching and holding his daughter by the neck; while the mother, a long-term victim of his control and a methamphetamine user, was powerless to intervene.
Removed in late 2015, the children were filthy, malnourished and traumatised, and continue to suffer behavioural and developmental issues.
The father was sentenced to three years and ten months’ jail, the mother three years and six months, underscoring the importance of community vigilance in protecting child welfare.
Johnathon Andrew Smallbon was sentenced to preventive detention by consent in 2007 after he admitted the attack on a 24-year-old man in Christchurch.
Smallbon was being monitored by police at the time because he was considered a high risk of reoffending.
He had been deported from Australia six months earlier after serving seven years in prison for sex attacks on two young men aged 14 and 16 in Sydney.
He moved into a boarding house mid-2006 and in December, lured his 24-year-old neighbour into his room under the premise of helping move furniture.
Smallbon held a knife to the man and tied him up on the bed using a telephone cord. He cut the victim’s clothes away, gagged him with his own sock and threatened to kill him.
The sexual attack continued for 17 hours and before Smallbon let the man go, he throttled him until he could not breathe
Marie disappeared from her suburban Christchurch home on April 5, 2008, after being dropped off by a friend’s mother.
Her body was found almost two weeks later, submerged in the Waimakariri River north of Christchurch.
Dean Stewart Cameron, a road worker, was later found guilty of her rape and murder.
Cameron was the uncle of one of Marie’s friends and helped in the search for her.
“Paddy” is one of New Zealand’s most notorious youth offenders, accumulating over 30 offences before turning 18.
From early childhood, he was exposed to family violence, substance abuse and neglect, with repeated reports to authorities.
Diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, ADHD and conduct disorder, he displayed violent, antisocial behaviour, often in state care.
Despite multiple interventions – including custody, mental health orders and Youth Court supervision – systemic failures and “critical missed opportunities” meant Paddy became “one of the most challenging young people” the Youth Court has had to deal with.
By 18, he faced serious charges, including aggravated robbery and assault. Even after parole, Paddy continued offending, highlighting the challenges of managing high-risk youth with complex needs.
Jaden Lee Stroobant, 19, was sentenced to life with preventive detention for the murder and sexual assault of his 69-year-old neighbour, Cunxiu Tian, in her Te Atatū home.
Released from prison only 38 days before, Stroobant overpowered the petite pensioner, repeatedly stomping on her head and sexually violating her, causing fatal injuries. Police gathered strong forensic evidence linking him to the scene.
He attempted to cover up the crime, redressing Tian and stealing valuables. His troubled upbringing involved neglect, family dysfunction and early exposure to drugs, alcohol and violence.
Dean Wickliffe, one of New Zealand’s most infamous criminals, is the only person to escape Pāremoremo maximum-security prison twice.
Over four decades, he accumulated convictions for murder, robbery, kidnapping and other serious offences.
His criminal path began with a traumatic childhood, abandonment and early brushes with youth detention, escalating into a lifetime of offending.
After a release from prison, Wickliffe reflected on his time behind bars, the harsh conditions of D block, and repeated recalls despite brief periods of freedom.
This exclusive story revealed the complex man behind New Zealand’s notorious headlines – before he went back inside again.
On June 2, 2009, Auckland man Blazej Kot went from newlywed to murder suspect in under two hours.
At 8.02 pm, he was helping his wife, Caroline Coffey, upload wedding photos in their Ithaca, New York apartment.
By 9.47 pm, police found Kot in his car at a nearby park, covered in dried blood. He led officers on an 8 km high-speed chase before crashing into trees and suffering a self-inflicted neck wound.
The next morning, Coffey’s body was discovered on a trail near their home, brutally killed. Kot became the prime suspect in her shocking murder.
In May 2018, Colin Jack Mitchell was jailed indefinitely for kidnapping a woman and assaulting her at a West Auckland quarry – and for the previously unsolved rape of a young mother making her way home from a music gig in 1992.
The Herald could then report that in 1985, Mitchell was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment after he raped, sodomised and indecently assaulted a teenager in central Auckland.
And in 1973, when he was only 15, he targeted his first victim, raping a woman in her own home in the middle of the day after following her home from her local dairy.
The Herald covered Mitchell’s trial and published extensive exclusive interviews with his first victims, who had waited decades to share their terrifying stories.
In October 1992, South Island toddler Amber-Lee Cruickshank disappeared from a small town on the shore of Lake Wakatipu.
She was last seen at a house where family and friends were socialising; in the time it took for her parents to realise she was missing, she had disappeared without a trace.
Despite exhaustive land and water searches, there has been no confirmed sighting or recovery of Amber‑Lee.
To mark the 25th anniversary of Amber-Lee’s disappearance, Leask investigated the famous cold case in a bid to generate some answers for the toddler’s family.
The Herald released Chasing Ghosts, a six-part podcast series, news feature and mini-documentary about the case – one of New Zealand’s most baffling mysteries.
So far, despite a $100,000 reward being offered by police, Amber-Lee’s disappearance remains unsolved.
During the Christchurch mosque shootings, Husna Ahmed risked her life to lead women and children to safety, returning inside to help her husband, Farid Ahmed, who uses a wheelchair.
She was shot and killed, leaving Farid to navigate the chaos, assist the injured and break the news to their daughter.
Despite his immense grief, days after the attack Farid praised his wife’s bravery and dedication to others.
In an exclusive interview, he told the Herald he had forgiven the gunman, expressing compassion and a desire for humanity to prevail over hatred.
Farid now seeks to honour Husna’s legacy by promoting love, care and understanding rather than anger and revenge.
In the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, two baby boys – Baxtor Gowland, 5 months, and Jayden Harris, 8 months – were among the youngest victims.
Ten years after the deadly quake, their mothers recounted harrowing experiences.
Breanna Gowland desperately tried to save Baxtor amid chaos, witnessing his death and enduring profound survivor guilt, but has found some healing raising her other children.
Tracey Harris recalls trying to protect Jayden as debris crushed him; his death shattered her life, leaving enduring grief, PTSD and the loss of the chance to parent her surviving children.
Both women continue to honour their sons’ memories while navigating lifelong trauma and loss.
Christie, 18, died in her mother Tracey’s arms in November 2011 after she was stabbed repeatedly in her family home by Akshay Chand.
Chand killed Christie a month after he was released on bail on charges of kidnapping and assaulting her.
Despite opposition from the police and the Marceau family, including a pleading letter from Christie, Judge David McNaughton released Chand on bail.
He had also considered a letter from Chand saying he was remorseful and wanted to apologise,
Thirty-two days later, Christie was dead after Chand stabbed her up to 10 times on the deck of her family home. The same day, Chand boasted to police that his letter had been part of a plan to get out of prison and kill Christie.
Chand was later found not guilty of murdering Christie by reason of insanity. He was remanded to the Mason Clinic as a special patient and can be released only if the Minister of Health deems him no longer a danger to the community or the Marceau family.
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