Knifing brings murder charge

By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE and NZPA

ROTORUA - A 30-year-old man appeared in the Rotorua District Court yesterday charged with murder after the fatal stabbing of a woman at her home.

The slain woman has been identified as Joanna Elizabeth Monk, aged 55.

Mrs Monk's husband, Philip, 58, was also stabbed and was last night seriously ill in the Rotorua Hospital intensive care unit.

The arrested man was at the Monks' home in Martin St when ambulance staff called the police.

He has been remanded in custody for a week.

Mr and Mrs Monk were stabbed soon after returning from work to their home on the banks of the Utuhina Stream on Tuesday evening. The house has an adjoining self-contained flat which was rented out.

Mrs Monk worked with her husband at the sporting goods manufacturer Kilwell Sports.

She was a specialised computer operator and Mr Monk, an accountant, is the company secretary.

The firm's owner, Jeremy Wells, was stunned yesterday at the fate of a couple he described as unassuming.

"They were quiet citizens who just did their job and carried on with life." Mr Monk had worked with him for about 26 years, and Mrs Monk for eight years.

"It seems such an extraordinarily unnecessary type of death," Mr Wells said.

The couple had left work together on Tuesday about 5.30 pm.

Mrs Monk had been on crutches for 10 days after spraining her ankle when she fell down a bank at the Australian cricket test in Hamilton.

Mr Monk did "a little bit of fishing" and was interested in photography, but his passion was vintage cars.

His wife had been keen on gardening and surfing the Internet.

Mr Wells said friends and competitors in the trade had been ringing from as far away as Dunedin to express their shock and sorrow. The Monks did not lead high-profile lives, he said, but were well liked and respected.

With a son and a daughter - "academically bright kids" - in their 20s, they were "a sensible middle-class Kiwi family."

Detective Senior Sergeant Win van der Velde said the arrested man was known to Mr and Mrs Monk, but was not a family member.