• Donovan Michael Duff pleaded guilty to murdering inmate Brian Kenneth George at Auckland South Corrections Facility. 
• Duff was already serving a life sentence for the 2016 murder of his 9-month-old daughter. 
• Justice Mathew Downs, who oversaw his first murder trial, was again on the bench today as Duff revised his pleas to guilty. 

A patched Mongrel Mob member serving a life sentence for beating his baby daughter to death in Waikato has now pleaded guilty to a second killing – this time in the kitchen at a South Auckland prison. 

Donovan Michael Duff, 48, appeared in the High Court at Auckland via audio-video feed this morning as he admitted the murder of fellow inmate Brian Kenneth George and wounding another inmate with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. 

Today marks the first time he can be identified by name since the charges were laid a year ago. He had previously been granted name suppression until his trial, which had been scheduled for March next year, in part because his previous murder trial in 2018 had been closely covered by the media. 

Donovan Michael Duff, who was found guilty in the High Court at Rotorua in 2018 of murdering his baby daughter, has pleaded guilty in the High Court at Auckland to the 2023 murder of fellow inmate Brian George at Auckland South Corrections Facility. Photo / Jason Oxenham 

During today’s brief hearing, Justice Mathew Downs set a sentencing date for June and remanded him in custody until that date. 

“You are, of course, already serving a life sentence for murder,” the judge noted. 

The fatal attack took place about 11.40am on December 21 last year at the Auckland South Corrections Facility men’s prison in Wiri. The prison, which can hold up to 960 men, is operated by private company Serco under an agreement with the Department of Corrections. 

“One man was found unresponsive and was worked on by medical staff, but sadly, he died at the scene,” Detective Inspector Warrick Adkin said at the time. 

Donovan Duff during his 2018 murder trial. Photo / NZME 

“Another man has been injured and transported to hospital in a serious condition.” 

Duff, originally from Tūrangi in rural Waikato, was already serving a life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of 17 years for the March 2016 killing of 9-month-old daughter Maija. 

He insisted during his trial in the High Court at Rotorua that he didn’t know how the baby received the injuries. But prosecutors said he was the only caregiver at home with the baby when she suffered injuries so severe they were compared to being kicked in the head by a horse. 

He was sentenced in October 2018 by Justice Downs, the same judge who took his plea today for the new charges. 

A cultural report outlined how Donovan Duff went from dealing methamphetamine to becoming an addict. Photo / Jason Oxenham 

During the previous sentencing, the judge outlined a history of violence that included breaking his former partner’s pelvis during a hammer attack, presenting a firearm at a law enforcement officer, aggravated robbery and other assault and wounding convictions. 

A cultural report outlined how he went from dealing methamphetamine to becoming an addict. He had taken a violence prevention programme in prison prior to killing his daughter, but had trouble applying the lessons in the outside world, the report noted. 

He had a deprived childhood, resulting in anger issues and a lack of empathy for others, the report writer said, adding that it led to his recruitment in the Mongrel Mob – a gang whose “ethos has been to invert what would be normally acceptable and turn social failure into perverse achievement”. 

The father and sister of his latest victim sat quietly in the courtroom today as the guilty pleas were entered. 

Duff, sitting in a prison cell equipped with an audio-video feed, leaned into the camera for most of the hearing so those in the courtroom could see only the large tattoo covering the bald dome of his head. 

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.