Murderer assaults prison officers

The prisoner was transferred out of Whanganui Prison. Photo / Bevan Conley

A convicted murderer has been transferred out of Whanganui Prison after assaulting two prison officers.

Shiloh Dallas Mareikura was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 15 years last year after stabbing an Opunake man to death.

Mareikura was described as mentally unwell when he went to Desroe Bishop's house in September 2013 and stabbed him 27 times.

He was released from prison in April 2013 after being convicted of assaulting and threatening Mr Bishop.

One of his release conditions was that he not enter Opunake, but Corrections allowed him to attend a tangi there. It was while he was in town for the tangi that he murdered Mr Bishop.

Mareikura appeared in the Whanganui District Court on Tuesday facing new charges of assaulting prison guards.

The assaults happened in March.

Judge Allan Roberts said the offending was at the "low end of the scale".

"It involves head punches to two people who were going about their business," he said.

Defence lawyer Anna Brosnahan said there was a mental health issue for Mareikura, and he had since been transferred to another prison.

Mareikura pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a prison officer.

Judge Roberts sentenced him to three months in prison.