Now Timu, who was his legal guardian and great aunt, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, accepting her role in his death. The 62-year-old also has admitted a series of charges, some of them representative, related to ill-treatment and ongoing violence towards Rickah’Shae. As Timu entered guilty pleas, a large number of family members and supporters of Rickah’Shae were in attendance. Timu pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including the manslaughter charge, and the violence and ill-treatment charges related to Rickah’Shae. Timu accepted charges of ill-treatment, which included shaving the children’s hair to embarrass them, and withholding food.

Photo: © Mogie Adamchik 2025The format, the contenders, the history, the ambassadors, plenty of highlights ahead of golf's New Zealand Open. Photo: PHOTOSPORTArguably the most famous New Zealand Open though was in 2002 at Paraparaumu Beach, when Tiger Woods came to New Zealand. Seven other former New Zealand Open winners are also competing. He finished tied for second at last year's New Zealand Open, alongside South African Ian Snyman, who has also returned. She won the French Open in 2019, Wimbledon in 2021 and the Australian Open in 2022, before retiring at the age of just 25.

PHOTO: GERRIT DOPPENBERGWhat do you get when cross a Swedish farmer with a penchant for adventure, the oldest functional plane in Sweden, a global logistics crisis and Mandeville, the "Mecca for old planes"? Clearly Mr Wiukander was not particularly fussed by the diversion despite the oldest functional plane in Sweden going off-radar for 12 months. After the plane was picked up by their friends the duo travelled around New Zealand taking it to the Croydon Aviation centre which Mr Wiukander was very fond of. "This is the 13th time [for me], and the eighth time [for Mr Samberg]. The next step on their journey is a leg down to the Stewart Island, before packing up and heading back to Sweden, reunited with their plane.

Photo: PGG WrightsonA thriving rural economy has helped PGG Wrightson (PGW) lift its half-year profit 8% to $17.3 million. The rural business company expects further strong trading in the second half. A spending boost is expected from an average $300,000 one-off payment to dairy farmers from Fonterra’s sale of its consumer business. PGW was seeing dairy farmers already investing in their businesses from the coming one-off Fonterra payment. "We have sold some properties to farmers as they look to expand their footprint and some are looking for rural residential property as well.

The Dunedin City Council is encouraging people to step up and become a candidate in the upcoming by-election. The by-election is required to fill the councillor position left vacant by the unexpected death of Cr Jules Radich on January 5. Council deputy electoral officer Robyn Dillon said, in a statement, people with an interest in the future of Dunedin should consider putting themselves forward for election. To stand, candidates must be enrolled to vote and a New Zealand citizen by the close of the nomination period. Nomination papers and information about the by-election is available on the council website www.dunedin.govt.nz/elections.

This building in Queenstown’s CBD, home to Plunket Queenstown, sold for $3.05 million at auction yesterday, more than $2m under its capital valuation. PHOTO: FILESQueenstown's Plunket building is in new hands. After a 10-minute pause, the bidding war eventually began, in which the price rose from $2.6m to the eventual sale price, via phone, of $3.05m. The vendor at that time was Plunket’s national body, and that sale price was also below the CV. The 531sq m property, containing a 240sq m building, is still home to Plunket Queenstown.

Two Invercargill tertiary education providers will share a campus next year. The University of Otago’s College of Education Invercargill programmes will move to the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) main campus in December this year. The present College of Education campus, in Nelson St, was recently sold. While the two institutions would share a campus, the programmes delivered at the College of Education would continue under the umbrella of the University of Otago. SIT chief executive Bharat Guha said having most of Southland’s tertiary education located in one place was a great opportunity.

Photo: SuppliedA Christchurch bakery has been fined $200,000 and ordered to pay $45,500 in reparations after a man’s finger and part of his thumb were amputated in a machine roller. After a WorkSafe investigation, French Bakery Ltd admitted to work health and safety failures before it was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday. WorkSafe said the 41-year-old man's hand was pulled into the machine rollers at the bakery in April 2023, 1News reported. The man's index finger was amputated, his thumb was partially amputated, and his middle finger was crushed. WorkSafe principal inspector Shaun Millar said one worker turned a machine on while another had his hand inside it.

Photo: Allied Media filesSantana Minerals is being accused of a second breach of overseas investment rules as it faces a legal challenge over a crucial land purchase. When the land was eventually put on the open market, information about the sale was not forthcoming, their lawyers said. The documents also showed that Land Information New Zealand (Linz), in 2023, found Santana Minerals breached overseas investment rules for its acquisition of New Zealand mining company Matakanui Gold Ltd in 2020. In October, Santana Minerals applied to the OIO for consent to acquire a combined total of about 3677 hectares of land at Ardgour and Bendigo Stations, in Tarras. In a statement, Mr Spring said Santana Minerals had engaged proactively and transparently with the OIO throughout the process.

A police officer stands by a vehicle at the Z service station in Kaikorai Valley Rd last night. Photo: Gregor RichardsonPolice arrested a 46-year-old man in Brockville last night following a short-lived manhunt during which an officer fired a shot from a pistol. The premises was the Z service station. About half a dozen police swarmed the service station when the man was spotted. The offender drove his vehicle towards a patrol car and officers in his efforts to avoid arrest.

The university’s quest to find $16m in savings this year comes not long after the mass staff cuts of 2022-23, when the university first discovered the massive "hole" of about $60m in the budget that required major staff cuts to stay afloat. Vice-chancellor Grant Robertson had made staff aware of possible upcoming changes, Mr Trott said. Tertiary Education Union president Prof Craig Marshall, of the University of Otago, said there appeared to be less of a focus on staff cuts from the university, and more on finding other ways to save. As at the end of 2024, the university had 1593 academic staff and 2420 professional staff. Prof Marshall said he would like to see a "coherent future plan" for the tertiary education sector.

And just like that, in half a nano-second, I was standing on a muddy rugby pitch in eastern France in 1981. I played for ASPTT Nancy, with Nancy being the town where I was living and teaching evening classes to adults. My classes in the week that followed all wanted to know how the tooth had been broken. As he worked to rebuild the broken tooth he told me how superior French cars were to British cars, French food to British food, French everything to British everything. And now, this week, that 45-year-old repair that I have lugged around the world has crumbled and I am back to how I was on that French rugby pitch in 1981.

Photo: Getty ImagesNaming sponsor Sky Sport has pulled the pin on the New Zealand Open, which tees off today at Arrowtown’s Millbrook course. Mr Hart would not confirm how much Sky’s sponsorship was worth, but they had been a naming sponsor — "the NZ Open presented by Sky Sport" — since 2020. Sky NZ head of communications Ellie Brosnahan confirmed Sky was no longer a named sponsor "but remains highly involved in the NZ Open". "We are also supporting the production partner for the event, NEP, through the Sky Sport graphics package and by providing Sky Sport presenters for the coverage." She noted this year’s coverage, from 2.30pm each day, was available across Sky’s platforms, including, for the first time, full free-to-air coverage on Sky Open.

Jetstar and Air New Zealand launched new returns flights from Christchurch to Hamilton. PHOTOS: CHRISTCHURCH AIRPORTA surge in air traffic has propelled Christchurch Airport to deliver a 24% increase in first-half profit to $29.5 million. The growth was credited to new and expanded air services, including new domestic jet flights to Hamilton from Jetstar and Air New Zealand, increased domestic capacity from Jetstar and strong growth across international routes. The transtasman market benefited from new routes to Adelaide and Cairns and additional services from Air New Zealand and the Qantas Group. Christchurch Airport chief executive Justin Watson.

Police recovered a significant quantity of cannabis in executing Operation Vintage. But the Dunedin District Court heard last week it was a thinly culinary veiled code the 55-year-old Haast man used for his drug-dealing activities. "Fish and chips" was methamphetamine and "salad", "cabbage" or "greenery" referred to cannabis. Text messages referred to "fillets" or "an order of fish and chips", but there were times in 2023 Macdonald strayed from the code. As well as the drugs, police found nearly 900 rounds of ammunition of various calibre at Macdonald’s house.