Warning: This story references domestic violence and child abuse.

The Rotorua Daily Post covered more than 100 court hearings last year - as well as the countless written decisions that go alongside them.

From high-level drug dealing and money laundering, the tragic murder of an 18-month-old, to the conviction of New Zealand’s first saboteur, Rotorua courts have heard some of the country’s most notable cases for 2022. Ethan Griffiths looks at four high-profile cases.

High life to home detention

Rotorua woman Paula Toleafoa was living the high life. Overseas trips, thousand-dollar shopping sprees and flash cars.

The problem was Toleafoa’s luxurious life was funded by drug money - money she laundered on behalf of her Head Hunters-connected husband Luther Toleafoa, who would regularly travel from Auckland to Rotorua to sell methamphetamine.

Paula Toleafoa, 48, escaped a prison sentence in April, sentenced to 10 months home detention after earlier being found guilty of 59 charges of money laundering. Her prosecution was the final step in a four-year police investigation, related to Head Hunters members who intended to set up a Rotorua chapter.

At her trial in 2021, the former Work and Income fraud investigator told the court that she was pulled into a life of crime by her husband, who she said was abusive. She said she thought the money she spent was gained legitimately, and she would have left her husband if she knew he was a drug dealer.

Paula Toleafoa claimed she left her husband despite Facebook posts suggesting otherwise. Photo / NZME

• Baby Elijah: Mum who suffocated son found guilty of manslaughter
• Named: The woman who abused, neglected and bashed her child to death
• Man charged with sabotage believed to be first in NZ history

But that was in contrast to her personal and business social media pages that indicated the pair were still together - as well as a new product range called “Dirty Money”, which Toleafoa had promoted as part of her business.

At her sentencing in April, the court heard how Toleafoa had gone from growing up in a home marred by abuse and having a child in high school, to great success - graduating university with a social science and journalism degree and going on to work in the public service.

Her aunt told the court she was making great strides to becoming a better person since falling into criminality, and had the courage to leave her “reckless, abusive and terrifying husband”. But evidence submitted by the Crown contradicted this.

She is set to complete her home detention sentence in February.

Our first convicted saboteur

Taupō man Graham Philip wasn’t always on a path to criminality. A 62-year-old with a loving wife, three children and stable employment, three years ago it would have seemed unfathomable that this man would eventually become the country’s first saboteur.

But Philip became so firm in his convictions - namely a catalogue of conspiracies surrounding Covid-19 - that he attacked vital Transpower infrastructure in an effort to bring attention to his cause.

It’s illegal to detail precisely what Philip attacked, what he used, or what the consequences of his attack could have been. While he caused a fire and $1.25 million in damage, further details remain subject to a permanent suppression order over Crown fears of copycat offenders.

Graham Philip was sentenced in December to 3 years and 1 month in prison. Photo / Ethan Griffiths

Open Justice revealed the sabotage prosecution in June, with very limited details. As the months passed, the case drew significant attention within online Covid-19 conspiracy circles, with many claiming he was a “political prisoner” held without charge.

Philip ended up pleading guilty to seven charges.

He was sentenced to three years and one month imprisonment.

The murder of Comfort-Jay

Southern Cheyenne Thompson’s home was cold, damp, had broken windows and no working lightbulbs. There was old and rotting food on the floor, dirty nappies strewn across the living area where occupants of the house slept on a mattress, and dirty clothes and rubbish throughout.

Thompson’s property was also home for her 18-month-old daughter Comfort-Jay, whose short life was marred by malnourishment and physical abuse.

In July 2018, the child’s mother lashed out, inflicting blunt-force trauma on Comfort-Jay. The unconscious toddler lay lifeless in the Tirau house as Thompson went to fetch a phone from her neighbour. She called Healthline and a nurse told her she needed to call an ambulance immediately. Thompson told them she was too busy.

Two hours later, she finally called an ambulance. Comfort-Jay was unconscious on arrival, but later died in hospital from her brain injuries.

Southern Thompson inflicted blunt force trauma on her own daughter - but didn't ring an ambulance until two hours later. Photo / Stephen Parker

Thompson told police she did assault her child, but did not inflict trauma to her head. The only explanation given was the child had fallen down two concrete stairs earlier in the day.

It was later determined that Comfort-Jay died as a result of multiple impacts to her head, which caused a brain bleed. Some injuries were fresh, while others were older.

Some who knew the child gave evidence that she was seen at times with two black eyes and cut lips. Police concluded Comfort-Jay was subject to prolonged abuse and malnourishment - weighing just 8 kilograms when she died.

In May - nearly four years after the killing - Thompson appeared in the Rotorua High Court where she was sentenced to life in prison for murder, with a 17-year minimum period of imprisonment.

Thompson wasn’t named until July, when she abandoned her fight for name suppression.

Infanticide, murder or manslaughter?

The trial of murder-accused Rotorua woman Melody Ngawhika tasked a jury with considering a law written well before most New Zealanders were even born.

Ngawhika was charged with murder after she admitted holding her 6-month-old son Elijah hard against her shoulder and suffocating him during New Zealand’s level 4 Covid lockdown.

But Ngawhika denied the killing constituted murder - of which a conviction requires a proven intent to kill. Expert evidence from the Crown and her legal team showed she was in the midst of a depressive episode.

Melody Ngawhika was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at a trial in November. Photo / Andrew Warner

That’s where the concept of infanticide came into the equation. Ngawhika’s lawyer Fraser Wood actively sought an infanticide conviction.

Infanticide is a historic charge first legislated in 1937, which allows mothers who kill their children to be convicted at a lower level of culpability. To qualify, the killing must have occurred when “the balance of [the mother’s] mind was disturbed” as a result of childbirth.

While murder carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, infanticide carries just three years.

But the charge can only be proven if it is accepted Ngawhika’s mental anguish occurred as a result of childbirth - not other factors in her life that the jury heard, including an abusive figure from the past re-entering her life.

Ultimately, despite the case from Ngawhika’s legal team and the opposing murder case from the Crown, the jury decided to side with neither, concluding Ngawhika was guilty of manslaughter.

She remains on bail and will be sentenced this year.

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.
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