A Moment In Crime

This is the second in a two-part episode. 

In 2023 South African doctor Lauren Anne Dickason was found guilty of murdering her daughters Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home.

She and her husband Graham - an ortopaedic surgeon - had emigrated to New Zealand just weeks earlier seeking a better, safer life for their young children. 

Dickason killed the little girls 20 minutes after her husband left for a ...

In 2023 South African doctor Lauren Anne Dickason was found guilty of murdering her daughters Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home.

She and her husband Graham - an ortopaedic surgeon - had emigrated to New Zealand just weeks earlier seeking a better, safer life for their young children. 

Dickason killed the little girls 20 minutes after her husband left for a work function. He found the siblings dead i...

On Easter Monday 2021, Paulina Hanna was found dead at the Remuera home she shared with her husband of 30 years, Philip Polkinghorne.

For 16 months, her death was treated as “unexplained”. That’s until it emerged Polkinghorne had been charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty in August 2022.

From the team behind The Front Page, the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, comes Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial.

Listen to Accused: T...

Cynric Temple-Camp is one of New Zealand's top pathologists - and he has just published his third book about his work.

The Final Diagnosis is a collection of stranger-than-fiction stories of death, disease and murder - as well as Temple-Camp sharing new perspectives on high-profile cases, including the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope and the trial of Mark Lundy.

A Moment In Crime host Anna Leask spoke with Temple-Camp ab...

To mark the 30 year anniversary of the mass killing A Moment In Crime presents The House of Bain, a two-part telling of the case. 

On June 20 1994 Margaret and Robin Bain, their teenage daughters Arawa and Laniet and son Stephen were all shot dead in the family home at 65 Every Street, Dunedin.

Just after 7am David Bain - Margaret and Robin's oldest child - called emergency services to report the ghastly scene. He said he had come ...

On June 20 1994 five members of the Bain family were found shot dead in their home at 65 Every Street, Dunedin.

Margaret and Robin Bain, their teenage daughter Arawa and Laniet and their son Stephen were all shot at close range. 

Just after 7am David Bain - Margaret and Robin's oldest child - called emergency services to report the ghastly scene. He said he had come home from his morning paper run and found them all dead. 

Days lat...

In 1954 Christchurch woman Honorah Parker was murdered while on a walk in the Port Hills. 

The culprits? Her daughter Pauline, 15 and best friend Juliet Hulme, 16. 

With “animal ferocity” they hit her over and over again with a brick inside a stocking. Police would later say the 46-year-old had been “battered to pieces”.

After a controversial trial, the teens were found guilty of murder - a jury rejecting their claims of insanity.

...

In 2011 Dean Richard Mulligan was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Marice McGregor. 

Marice was reported missing by her family in April 2010 and it emerged she had not been seen or heard from in the 10 days before they approached police. 

For weeks police searched and appealed for information - as did Marice's family. 

What happened to Marice? How did she die? And what was her killer's explanation?

In th...

George Gwaze was tried and acquitted in 2008 and 2012 after the death of his adopted daughter 10-year-old Charlene Makaza.

Charlene was rushed to hospital in a terrible state in January 2007 and died after her little body effectively shut down due to massive infection - doctors and experts unable to do anything to save her. 

Her family - who had moved to New Zealand from Zimbabwe for a better life - were scrutinised by police and t...

Jane Furlong was 17 when she went missing from Auckland's Karangahape Rd in May 1993.

Her partner Dani Norsworthy reported her missing two days after she was last seen.

She was a new mum and a part time sex worker and while she'd had a troubled and turbulent life, was doing her best to carve out a future for herself. 

For almost two decades - despite extensive police investigations - there was no sign of Jane, no clues to what happ...

In this episode of A Moment In Crime - the last for 2023 - senior journalist Anna Leask looks back at some of the country’s most brazen prison escapes, and speaks to one of the most high-profile escapees in history.

Arthur Taylor spent almost a month on the run with two murderers and a robber after masterminding an escape from New Zealand’s toughest prison at Paremoremo near Auckland.

You’ll also hear from others who escaped multip...

In 2000 Ronald Van Der Plaat became one of the country’s most infamous sex offenders when he was jailed for a litany of horrific abuse against his daughter spanning 23 years.

He started raping, sexually violating and indecently assaulting his daughter Tanjas when she was just 9 when the family were living in Vanuatu.

For the next 23 years, he would keep her as a sex slave, subjecting her to “bizarre and depraved” abuse which only e...

This episode of A Moment In Crime is a follow-up from the very first episode I produced about the Christchurch terror attack. 

As the Coronial inquest into the mass murder begins, it's important to remember what happened and who was responsible. It's important to remember who was killed, wounded and impacted. And it's important to understand the inquest. 

In this episode of A Moment In Crime you will hear from the judge who sentenc...

A Moment In Crime - The Patron - looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace.

Behind his money, philanthropy and resplendence, Wallace was a serial sex offender who lured men to his mansion on the premise of discussing funding proposals or helping with projects or careers and abused them when they least expected it. 

Wallace’s case took years to resolve with multiple trial dates -...

A Moment In Crime - The Patron - looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace.

Behind his money, philanthropy and resplendence, Wallace was a serial sex offender who lured men to his mansion on the premise of discussing funding proposals or helping with projects or careers and abused them when they least expected it. 

Wallace’s case took years to resolve with multiple trial dates -...

A Moment In Crime is presenting a three part episode - The Patron - which looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace.

Until his spectacular fall from grace, the Auckland rich lister was considered one of the biggest supporters of New Zealand film and art.

Wallace was respected, revered and his help, guidance and money was sought after by many in the arts world.

But behind the mon...

In September 2021, Lauren Dickason killed her three daughters, six year old Liane, and two year old twins Maya and Karla, shortly after the family moved to Timaru from South Africa.

For the last five weeks, Anna has been covering the trial, which this week saw a guilty verdict delivered on all three charges. As the trial has taken up a lot of Anna's time, there's no new episode of A Moment in Crime this month, but listen as she tal...

In 2011 an incomplete skeleton was found at a derelict property in Auckland by a demolition crew tasked with dismantling the buildings on site. 

It took police months to work out who the remains belonged to - and then they had to work out who had killed the young man, and why. 

In this episode of A Moment In Crime, journalist and host Anna Leask looks back at the grisly case and how the police finally got the man responsible. 

For ...

On May 5 2007 Lipine Sila murdered Hannah Rossiter and Jane Young and caused grievous bodily harm to eight other teens when he drove his car through a crowd outside a party in the Christchurch suburb of Edgeware. 

The collision took place after Sila and his brother had been involved in fights at the gathering.

Sila claimed he was scared for his life and was trying to get away from people attacking him - and that he never meant to h...