Rapist, murderer Liam Reid files injunction against Kiwi TV production company

Convicted rapist and murderer Liam Reid has taken High Court action against a television production company.

The Herald can reveal he has applied for an injunction against South Pacific Pictures in the High Court at Auckland.

Reid is serving a life sentence with a 23-year minimum non parole period for raping and killing deaf woman Emma Agnew in Christchurch in 2007.

He was also convicted of the rape, attempted murder and robbery of a 21-year-old student in Dunedin nine days later.

The injuction was first called in the High Court at Auckland this morning and a date was set for a hearing later this month.

Court documents reveal Reid is representing himself in the case.

It is unclear what his injunction relates to.

"While the matter is before the courts, we are unable to make any further comment on the case," said South Pacific Pictures spokeswoman Rachel Keereweer.

South Pacific Pictures is New Zealand's largest screen production company and has been operating for 28 years.

Its programming includes drama series and serials, feature films and, more recently, entertainment, reality programming and documentaries.

It is perhaps best known for Kiwi shows Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune and Westside.

Reid's victim Emma Agnew. Photograph supplied

Among their true crime shows is Forensics NZ - a five-episode prime-time documentary series.

Each programme focuses on a single crime from the past decade and that was solved by the combination of crime investigation and forensic science.

The cases cover blood spatter, DNA, tool marking, digital forensics, toxicology, entomology, and the latest in cutting-edge scientific technology.

Cases aired so far include the murders of Auckland woman Carmen Thomas, Christchurch schoolgirl Marie Davis and Alicia McCallion who was killed in the sleepout of her family home by her ex-boyfriend.

Liam Reid, rapist and murderer. Photograph supplied TVNZ

This is not the first time Reid has taken action to try to prevent television shows airing information about his case.

In December last year he went to the High Court to try to stop TVNZ broadcasting a show about him.

Radio New Zealand reported Reid told the court that a programme they featured on their website and which could be viewed by its audience on demand, contained inaccuracies that could affect his right to a fair trial.

He maintains he never raped or killed Agnew and was preparing to take his case to the Court of Appeal.

The Herald has contacted Reid's wife Davina Reid, formerly Murray, and her lawyer Jeremy Bioletti for comment.

Davina Murray leaves the High Court at Auckland in 2012 after she had been charged with smuggling items into prison for convicted rapist and murderer Liam Reid. New Zealand Herald photograph

The couple controversially married at Auckland Prison in June.

Davina Reid is a disgraced lawyer and was representing her now-husband for a time.

She lost her legal career after smuggling an iPhone, cigarettes and a lighter to him in 2011 while he was in Mt Eden prison.