NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

‘Something terrible had happened to her’: Hawke’s Bay murder trial hears of woman’s multiple injuries

Ric Stevens
By Ric Stevens
Open Justice reporter·NZ Herald·
13 Jun, 2023 04:51 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Justice Christine Grice is hearing the trial with a jury of eight women and four men. Photo / Bevan Conley
Justice Christine Grice is hearing the trial with a jury of eight women and four men. Photo / Bevan Conley

Justice Christine Grice is hearing the trial with a jury of eight women and four men. Photo / Bevan Conley

Warning: Distressing content

Taylor-Jade Hira had bleeding around her brain and more than 50 bruises and abrasions on her body, as well as healing rib and spine fractures, on the night she was taken to hospital.

The 55kg, 171cm, 22-year-old woman died from “complications of blunt force trauma”, according to a summary of her post-mortem examination read to the jury at a trial in the High Court at Napier on Tuesday.

Ranapera Taumata, 30, who was in a relationship with Hira at the time, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hira and an associated charge of injuring her with intent to injure.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The court has been told that Taumata, his sister and his mother, took Hira to Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings in the early hours of August 15, 2019.

She was assessed and flown to Wellington Hospital, where she died when her life-support system was switched off three days later.

The Crown has previously said that her head injuries were “unsurvivable”.

On Tuesday, Taumata’s mother gave evidence about being called to the sleepout behind her Hastings house, where Taylor-Jade often stayed with the accused.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tania Ratima-McCullough said it was an “awful fright” to see Taylor-Jade lying on a bed with her arms crossed, hands touching, on her chest.

“She was just lying there. Her eyes were in the back of her head, like. Here eyes were open but ... they had gone back.”

The young woman was breathing but “it was not normal. It was like a groaning, grunting breathing”.

Taylor-Jade Hira died in 2019. Photo / Supplied
Taylor-Jade Hira died in 2019. Photo / Supplied

Napier Crown Solicitor Steve Manning asked Ratima-McCullough what she thought about that.

“Something terrible had happened to her,” she replied.

The court has previously seen security camera footage which charted Taumata, sister Alana Taumata and Ratima-McCullough driving Hira to the hospital Emergency Department about 1km away.

“I said to Alana and Ranapera that we need to take Taylor to the hospital. We need to go now,” Ratima-McCullough said.

“We didn’t ring the hospital, we took her to the hospital. It was faster [than calling an ambulance].”

Ranapera Taumata, 30, is being tried in the High Court at Napier. Photo / Ric Stevens
Ranapera Taumata, 30, is being tried in the High Court at Napier. Photo / Ric Stevens

The post-mortem summary said that Hira presented to the hospital with “multiple injuries” and was found to have a subdural haemorrhage – bleeding in the space that surrounds the brain.

The autopsy confirmed the presence of other bleeding around the brain and associated swelling of brain tissue.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“The injuries were diffuse in nature with at least three distinct locations of haemorrhage: right face/temple, left face, and left parietal-occipital scalp (back to side of the left head),” the summary said.

“The right face temple injury was quite large and may include more than one impact,” it said.

“The left scalp haemorrhage seems distinct from the left frontal cranial pressure monitor.”

The summary also noted healing rib and spine fractures, and bruising over Hira’s face and upper extremities.

Read More

  • Cameras record assaults on Taylor-Jade Hira on night ...
  • Man charged with murder of Taylor-Jade Hira has been ...
  • Hawke’s Bay murder trial: Court views video footage ...
  • Murder trial: woman had bruises frequently in time ...

The court on Tuesday was also presented with an agreed summary of Taumata’s intellectual disabilities.

It said he had been assessed as having an IQ of between 64 and 72, with a score of 67, placing him on the cusp of the “borderline” and “extremely low” categories of intellectual functioning and in the lowest 1 per cent to 2.5 per cent of the population.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

His low intellectual functioning meant he was slow to process information in real time. He found it difficult to process complex or large amounts of verbal information.

Special arrangements have been made for Taumata at the trial, including having him participate from a separate room with the aid of a communications assistant.

The trial finished hearing evidence on Tuesday, its sixth day.

Manning and defence counsel Andrew Shulze are expected to sum up on Wednesday.

The trial is being heard by Justice Christine Grice and a jury of eight women and four men.

FAMILY VIOLENCE

How to get help: If you're in danger now: • Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours or friends to ring for you.
• Run outside and head for where there are other people. Scream for help so your neighbours can hear you.
• Take the children with you. Don't stop to get anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay.
Where to go for help or more information:
• Women's Refuge: Crisis line - 0800 REFUGE or 0800 733 843 (available 24/7)
• Shine: Helpline - 0508 744 633 (available 24/7)
• It's Not Ok: Family violence information line - 0800 456 450
• Shakti: Specialist services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and children.
• Crisis line - 0800 742 584 (available 24/7)
• Ministry of Justice: For information on family violence
• Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga: National Network of Family Violence Services
• White Ribbon: Aiming to eliminate men's violence towards women.
How to hide your visit:
If you are reading this information on the Herald website and you're worried that someone using the same computer will find out what you've been looking at, you can follow the steps at the link here to hide your visit. Each of the websites above also has a section that outlines this process.


Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

Politics

'Wild West': Thousands petition for Govt to halt contentious Gene Technology Bill

Politics

Government ditching open-plan classrooms

Christchurch

Five-year-old child victim in dog attack


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Recommended for you

Government ditching open-plan classrooms
Politics

Government ditching open-plan classrooms

Five-year-old child victim in dog attack
Christchurch

Five-year-old child victim in dog attack

Kaikohe welcomes first Sikh officer in unity ceremony at marae
Northland Age

Kaikohe welcomes first Sikh officer in unity ceremony at marae

Nasa probe captures closest ever images of solar eruptions
World

Nasa probe captures closest ever images of solar eruptions

The Country: Luxon on coalition friction
The Country

The Country: Luxon on coalition friction

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning
Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning



Latest from New Zealand

'Wild West': Thousands petition for Govt to halt contentious Gene Technology Bill
Politics

'Wild West': Thousands petition for Govt to halt contentious Gene Technology Bill

Beef + Lamb NZ has asked Government to 'slow down' and 'consult properly' with farmers.

16 Jul 02:42 AM
Government ditching open-plan classrooms
Politics

Government ditching open-plan classrooms

16 Jul 02:09 AM
Five-year-old child victim in dog attack
Christchurch

Five-year-old child victim in dog attack

16 Jul 02:03 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search