Kian McNamara named as Northland teenager who murdered Bram Willems at age 14

Police at the crime scene following Kian McNamara's fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Bram Willems in 2021. Photo / NZME

• Kian McNamara, now 18, has been named as the teen convicted of murdering Bram Willems in 2021.
• McNamara stabbed Willems multiple times after a night involving alcohol and cannabis turned violent.
• The Court of Appeal lifted name suppression, rejecting claims that naming him would harm his rehabilitation.

Kian McNamara stabbed Bram Willems to death near the Roadrunner Tavern between Ōpua and Paihia after a night out that included a joy ride in Willems’ car.

McNamara, now 18, is currently in prison after being convicted of murdering 22-year-old Willems in January 2021.

McNamara stabbed Willems to death after a night out that included alcohol and drugs and a joy ride in Willems’ car.

Willems, described in court documents as “easily led” and a young man who struggled to make friends, picked up McNamara and three other teenagers for a drive around the Bay of Islands on January 7, 2021.

Willems provided alcohol and cannabis and by 10pm there was tension in the group, particularly over Willems’ behaviour towards a 15-year-old girl among them.

Willems had previously been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and had some level of autism spectrum disorder.

The murder occurred near the Roadrunner Tavern between Ōpua and Paihia.

McNamara began acting aggressively and threatened to kill Willems with a knife, while the other youngsters in the car tried to calm him down.

There was more arguing and Willems began driving erratically before stopping his car near the tavern.

There, the girl ran away. The male teens confronted Willems, who by then was holding a knife of his own.

Willems stabbed multiple times

McNamara then attacked Willems with his knife, stabbing him seven times in the chest and abdomen, and a further six times in the lower back and buttocks when he fell to the ground.

One of the knife thrusts pierced Willems’ heart. He died at the scene.

McNamara claimed at his trial that he had been acting in self-defence but a jury rejected this defence.

He had been granted interim name suppression at his first court appearance, the day after Willems died.

Suppression continued through various stages of the court process, including trial, conviction, sentencing and a failed appeal against conviction.

It still applied after his successful appeal against his sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum of 10 years in jail. The sentence was reduced in 2023 to one of 13 years in prison with a non-parole period of five years and two months.

The issue of name suppression was reviewed last November by the Court of Appeal, with McNamara arguing to keep his name secret. The court’s decision has just been released.

McNamara’s counsel, Harrison Smith, opposed lifting suppression, arguing that his client’s “extreme youth” would mean that he would gain more notoriety than others convicted of murder if he were named.

‘Impulsive and reactive’ offending

He said McNamara’s actions had the hallmarks of youth offending. It was impulsive and reactive at a time when he was vulnerable to poor decision-making – and this supported a need for name suppression on the grounds of his age.

Naming him would undermine his rehabilitative prospects, he submitted.

Smith also raised a concern that McNamara’s “limited culpability” in the offending would not be reflected in any publication of his name.

He said this was a “reckless rather than deliberate killing” which was committed while McNamara was under the influence of alcohol and cannabis supplied to him by Willems.

Emma Hoskin, for the Crown, said there was no evidence to suggest that McNamara was ill-equipped to deal with the burden of having his name published.

In terms of culpability, Hoskin said the judge’s sentencing notes did not support a suggestion that McNamara was acting out of fear or in self-defence. He was acting out of anger.

The justices who heard the appeal said there was nothing in reports supplied to the court or submissions made to them that demonstrated a threshold of “extreme hardship” had been met which might prevent name suppression from being lifted.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.