Weekend Herald

Police officers’ links to gangs spark concerns

An Auckland police officer was living with a gang member who was suspected of drug dealing and money laundering, the Weekend Herald can reveal. Police raided the property where the King Cobras member was living with his partner and her daughter from a...

Inside Operation Italian Sky

A two-year police operation dismantled a multimillion-dollar drug network, resulting in jail for Tribesmen members and associates. Al Williams takes a look at the operation that exploited gaps in airport security, using commercial flights and tow...

Operation Fix: Inside sleeper cell of a Mexican cartel in Auckland

For three months, four Mexican men were kept under round-the-clock surveillance by police in Auckland. Aged 21 to 38, three were visiting New Zealand as tourists while the fourth was enrolled as an Englishlanguage student. They all arrived in New...

No extradition, no justice

Former staff from Dilworth School’s dark era of sexual abuse are currently serving, or have served, lengthy prison sentences for historical crimes against boys under their care. But one alleged offender lives outside the reach of New Zealand...

Nici Wickes’ festive trifle and mini pavs

‘WE’RE ALL DEVASTATED’

Jenny Ling ANorthland family is devastated their farm and “forever home” passed down through generations will be sold to make room for the four-lane highway from Auckland to Whanga¯rei. Linda Bryham and her family are “in limbo” after being notified...

Picking a private education — the $150k question

Parents are now looking at spending about $150,000 over five years to send their children to top private schools as fees rise faster than inflation. And despite the huge cost outlay, demand for places remains high. A Weekend Herald analysis of 2026...

Classroom challenges pushing school principals to the brink

Mayor eager for PM to ban homeless

Mayor Wayne Brown says he welcomes any Government law change to empower police to forcibly move homeless out of Auckland’s city centre — insisting it’s the Prime Minister’s job, not his, to eliminate the city’s “scruffy” characters. Brown told the...

The man formerly known as Prince

Andrew’s loss of title and home ‘humiliation for the ages’

‘The opposite of benevolence’

The Government has been left with a $3.2 billion bill for military veteran welfare after Veterans’ Affairs was sharply criticised by the High Court over how it handled a claim for support by Ta¯ Wira Gardiner. Veterans’ Affairs Minister Chris Penk...

Soldier’s family holding ON TO HOPE

Parents of a Kiwi soldier believed killed in Ukraine in May — but formally listed as missing in action — say they can’t accept he is dead until they have a body. The Herald reported last week that a fifth New Zealander was believed killed in the...

Retiree plans to ‘lose $25m’ helping others

At 76, a Dunedin multi-millionaire has decided to spend the final act of his working life not on yachts or golf courses, but in muddy subdivisions helping strangers buy homes. Ben Tomsett speaks to a self-made man about why he’s giving back in such a...

FBI helps foil New Zealand mass stabbing terror plot

Six more MPs own undeclared properties

Six more MPs have failed to declare property under Parliament’s rules, a Herald investigation has found. This follows the announcement of a parliamentary inquiry into MP Carl Bates’ 25 undeclared properties. The Herald has this week asked the six MPs...

Out of zone, and OUT OF LUCK

Thousands of Auckland students have missed out on studying at their preferred public school next year as out-ofzone ballot results are released. Figures compiled by the Weekend Herald show Epsom Girls’ Grammar and Auckland Grammar accepted just 135 of...

Downfall of a runaway dad

‘Brazen and blasé’ How final break-in gave police the edge in manhunt

BEAT THE BOKS

History could weigh heavily on the players tonight at Eden Park. But my message to the All Blacks is to forget the history — all that matters is this match. My own history with the Springboks goes way back. Like so many Kiwis, my first memory of these...

NZ warned over police graduate

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) raised concerns earlier this year about a newly-graduated New Zealand police constable. The Weekend Herald understands they were sharing information about his alleged links to gangs. The tip-off about the constable...

Putting the bus in BUSTED

Auckland Transport (AT) is fitting more than 70 buses with live CCTV cameras, amid a surge in violent attacks on drivers. The new technology will allow a driver to silently press a button to alert a CCTV operator to watch a potential assault or...

Kiwis want former ministers to front up, poll shows

AT ‘a law unto themselves’

Derek Cossey has “old rugby player knees”, which significantly limit his mobility. A small relief for the 67-year-old Onehunga man is his parking permit, which, when displayed in his vehicle, allows him to park in dedicated mobility spaces, or for...

‘WE FACE LOSING EVERYTHING’ ADMINISTRATORS CALLED IN AT COUNTRY’S BIGGEST LEAKY BUILDING

‘Amazing feeling’

Injury-hit All Black’s triumphant homecoming

‘Dastardly deed done in the dead of night’

Joanna Wane Former National Party president Sue Wood has described the Government’s retrospective repeal of pay equity claims as an affront to democracy, calling it a “dastardly deed done in the dead of night”. Wood became National’s first woman...

Why French tactics could trouble All Blacks

‘Wholly illogical’ Quest for answers after father-to-be’s sudden death

Savea pressure

How NZ Rugby tried to block star forward’s Moana move + Rating the best Super Rugby finals

‘United in grief ’

Kiwi dignitaries offer respects to Air India crash victims

Woman who killed partner walks free

A woman charged with fatally stabbing a well-known rugby league player after he barricaded himself in her home and wrapped a string around her neck has walked free after prosecutors abandoned the case. It’s understood lawyers planned to argue the...

Cold case: Former cop’s dying regret

One of the last conversations a former policeman’s daughter had with him before he died was about his regret that he couldn’t find “the smoking gun” to prove his theory about the disappearance of Mona Blades. It is 50 years today since the...

‘If I talked again, they would kill me’

More than $10 million went through the bank accounts of an overseas student allegedly exploited by a tax fraud syndicate in the Bay of Plenty kiwifruit industry, according to an ongoing Herald investigation. The money was deposited in sums of up to...

WINDOW RULING ‘TOTAL IDIOCY’

A Mt Eden villa owner says it’s “total idiocy” Auckland Council is demanding they remove doubleglazed windows from their house to comply with heritage rules, claiming the order is expensive and unnecessary. The Government is also seizing on the issue...

‘I couldn’t believe it’

A top Auckland school principal has been caught on a secret recording telling staff “when others go low, we choose to go high” after a serious privacy breach involving a former student. It comes amid a student revolt at Epsom Girls Grammar School...

Heirs to us

They grow up enveloped in wealth, raised by parents tagged with labels like rich lister, multi-millionaire or self-made entrepreneur. Jane Phare and Anne Gibson look at New Zealand’s ‘heir apparent’ generation to find out what they’ve done with their...

Pope Francis’ funeral

How to watch it and who will be there

‘Offensive joke’: Taxpayers fund rapist’s name battle

Katie Harris Serial sex offender Luca Fairgray’s years-long battle to keep his name secret cost the taxpayer $120,000 in legal-aid bills. The mother of one of his victims said the bill “reads like an offensive joke” and described it as a...

Three great magazines

‘I put the tool in her hand’

ACambridge school principal’s daughter endured years of anxiety, absenteeism, depression and counselling after receiving hateful abuse on Snapchat just three weeks after downloading the social media app as a 13-year-old. Daryl Gibbs spoke to the...

House price record shattered

‘INCOMPETENCE’

A woman who suffered an acute infection, blood clots, and bleeding in her stomach following a routine injection says she has lost faith in “incompetent” health professionals. “I’ve never been scared of death, but I am now,” Jacqui Siou said after...

Rich-listers in seawall dispute

Ex-All Black Ali Williams and billionaire Anna Mowbray are in a dispute with Auckland Council over seawall works at their $24 million property. The couple have spent several years developing their property in Westmere, one of Auckland’s most expensive...

What PM knew

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was aware the minister he put in charge of competition issues has a family member who owns a business in one of the country’s least competitive sectors. Luxon last week appointed Scott Simpson Commerce and Consumer...

Oscars preview

From CGI chimps to madcap musicals, the films vying for an Academy Award this year are as diverse as they come. At the ceremony hosted by talk show host and comedian Conan O’Brien, viewers can expect a night full of glamour, impassioned speeches and...

$1 billion

wiped off Spark’s value after profit crashes

‘ I am going to burn the place down’

A top architecture firm was forced to send its 150 staff home for two days and employ security on the door of its Auckland headquarters after a worker’s threats over several weeks, stemming from an employment meeting regarding her attendance at...

‘People think I’m a Scrooge’

ANZ helped victim send $250k to ‘money mule’

Staff at the country’s largest bank helped a scam victim send $250,000 to the account of a known “money mule” just weeks after another victim lost $250,000 to an ANZ account under the same name. A Herald investigation has revealed that ANZ was on...

‘He scammed me too’

A Kiwi chief executive charged with laundering $1.53 million for overseas scammers says he was tricked by a fake British lawyer and that he’s also a victim of the scam. Jayson Alexander Herewini, 53, claims he received “less than $30,000” in...

MORTGAGE WARS

Is a foreign buyer ban change coming?

Tinseltown to ‘ghost town’

NZ’S BEST BEACH

As the saying goes, “New Year, New . . . Best Beach?” It’s time again for the Herald readers to crown New Zealand’s Best Beach, an annual search for our favourite piece of Kiwi coastline in five categories. Here’s everything you need to know about the...

The big sports stories of 2024

Jurgen Klopp bid farewell to Liverpool, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray ended their careers as Jannik Sinner and Scottie Scheffler endured the highs and lows of success. Here are some of the top international sports stories outside the Olympics that made...

AB named over nude pics

Aformer top sports star who threatened to post a woman’s naked photos online and bombarded her with a series of nude images can now be named as ex-All Blacks prop Carl Hayman. The 45-year-old, whose name suppression lapsed yesterday, was sentenced...

Rebel without a pause

“Ijump on to a group of people, young men, friendly, preppy boys drinking wine spritzers. They kick me. I swing wildly. I can’t feel anything.” This is the actor Josh Brolin describing one of his life’s many wild nights, on this occasion in Paris....

He’s raving like Rambo, over mis-parked Lambo

A judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a star of the popular Facebook page S**t Drivers of New Zealand. Thomas Macdonald, 29, a rapper who prefers the stage name of Tom Francis, failed to appear for sentencing in the Waitakere District Court...

Fears of CRL blowouts

French construction executives are flying to New Zealand over fears of time and cost blowouts for New Zealand’s biggest infrastructure project. Alarm bells have gone off at Auckland’s $5.5 billion City Rail Link with the body set up to run the project...

Rich-lister couple’s $12m mansion burgled

Police have opened an investigation into a late-night robbery at a multimillion-dollar Mission Bay mansion. A police spokesperson said they were called to the Selwyn Ave property about 11pm on Thursday. Three men had entered the home and took a...

Scam ‘terrifying for me and my family’

An English scammer who posed as a police courier to dupe pensioners into giving him $337,700 says he, too, is a victim of criminals. Jack Dylan Hennessy led pensioners to believe they were part of a covert police operation targeting crooked bank...

DUBLIN DOGFIGHT

The question, even eight years ago, that everybody had about Ireland was “would they ever beat the All Blacks?” Now, they have done it five times, and the question is how long before they become the biggest brand in world rugby — bigger, more...

Canvas, OneRoof, and Driven

‘Lowest of the low’

A disbarred lawyer struck off for filing false mortgage documents allegedly used hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from a scam victim to finance a luxury rebuild at his St Heliers home and send his daughter to one of Auckland’s top private...

‘Take some wine and f*** off’

Family’s radical move to save mother’s life

A Christchurch family are considering uprooting their lives and moving to Australia to access the blood cancer drug their mum needs to stay alive. Maureen King, 69, has multiple myeloma and will soon run out of publicly funded treatment options. The...

‘Pressure, deceived and THREATENED’

When Joss Shawyer was expecting twins in 1969 she came under pressure to agree to give them up for adoption because she was a single mother. Today, as part of a special investigation by Nicholas Jones , she tells the incredible story of how she fought...