The man who murdered and dismembered Auckland mum Carmen Thomas before burying her remains – interred in concrete-filled plastic containers – in the Waitākere Ranges has appeared before the Parole Board for the first time.

There, Bradford James Joseph Callaghan opened up about the “volcano of emotions” that led to him killing Thomas in her Remuera flat, that he meant no “disrespect” when he cut her body into eight pieces days later and how he “did everything not to get caught” in the weeks that followed.

He also claimed he wished he had been “caught straight away” – and apologised to Thomas’ family.

Prisoners in three units at Auckland Prison were denied their minimum entitlements for up to nine months, the Office of the Inspectorate has found.

• The investigation found that 107 prisoners were likely subject to solitary confinement for more than 100 days, and 24 men for more than 200 days.

• A lawyer has labelled the treatment as “inhumane”.

• The Department of Corrections said it has accepted the recommendations to ensure ongoing monitoring and assurances that minimum entitlements are being delivered.

A special investigation has highlighted inmates at New Zealand’s only maximum security prison are being denied their minimum entitlements.

Last January, Stuff revealed some prisoners at Auckland prison were being locked in their cells for up to three days at a time - breaching human rights, with lawyers, the Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International concerned for the welfare of inmates at and were urging Corrections to address the issue.

“Unlocking men for an hour every two days is inhumane” barrister Emma Priest, who represents some of the affected men, said.

Connor Cole Boyd, 18, was run over after falling from a moving car in Auckland’s CBD in the early hours of April 24, 2022 after a night of escalating tensions. He died in hospital days later.

• Two 20-year-olds, who were 18 at the time, were jailed earlier this year after being found guilty of manslaughter.

• On Monday, the 20-year-old woman argued her name should be kept a secret forever at the Court of Appeal. The judges reserved their decision.

A young woman jailed for the manslaughter of Connor Boyd is continuing her fight to keep her name secret forever.

The lawyer for a man appealing an aggravated robbery charge in the Supreme Court says his case raises deep question about the limits of police powers, privacy, and fundamental human rights.

Mahia Tamiefuna was convicted of the charge in 2021, and central to the case was a photo that was taken of him illegally by a police officer.

Tamiefuna was the passenger in a car which was randomly stopped and his photo was taken while the occupants were standing on the side of the road as the vehicle was impounded.

The photo was then allowed to be used in court in the successful conviction.

A young man who was filmed punching a 71-year-old woman in the head during the heated Posie Parker counter-protest in Auckland last year has been granted a discharge without conviction and permanent name suppression.

His lawyer Emma Priest said the man, aged 20 at the time of the assault, was caught up in what she described as the “frenzy” of the counter-protest in March last year and had now taken full responsibility.

You very seldom see acts of mercy in a courtroom and it did not entirely seem to be on the cards in the High Court at Auckland yesterday morning when a woman appeared for sentencing after being convicted for the manslaughter of her plainly adorable daughter Arapera Fia, beaten to death when she was 2 years old.

Nikitalove Brampton Tekotia, 24, was charged with failing to protect her child.

The charge was exactly as it read on the packet: she failed, acutely and profoundly, to look after and save Arapera, killed by Nikita’s vain and brutal part-time lover, Tyson Brown, who was found guilty at his trial in March 2023 and given a life sentence (15 years non-parole) by Justice David Johnstone.

The instigator of a brutal, prolonged attack on a young Auckland boxing coach, who then set a house on fire to cover up the murder, has been jailed.

At trial, the Crown said both Greg Hart and his childhood friend Sean Hayde had motive to kill Hart’s flatmate, Wiremu Arapo.

For Hayde it was his anger that Arapo kept interfering in his new relationship with a mutual friend.

On Thursday, the court heard Hayde still denied his involvement in the offending. Justice Geoffrey Venning sentenced him to life imprisonment, ordering him to serve at least 17 years before being eligible for parole.

Emma Priest has cut a name for herself for some forthright opinions on criminal law, providing a voice for and about criminal law and crime generally. Her background in psychology and law has seen her build an impressive career as a leader at the criminal bar, including her development of the “Good Lawyer” platform.

A ketamine addict who committed armed robberies at two banks in the span of a week while suffering drug-induced psychosis has been sentenced to home detention.

“Sorry to be intrusive but this is a bank robbery,” Man Taek Lim, 35, told a teller at a crowded Glenfield Mall ASB branch on Auckland’s North Shore in July 2022. Lim was disguised with a bandanna, a black face mask and black tinted glasses that looked like ski goggles.

He targeted a Kāpiti Coast bank six days later, fleeing with about $1100 after each heist.

Auckland District Court Judge Belinda Sellars acknowledged during today’s sentencing hearing that a non-custodial sentence is rare for a person who admits to two armed bank robberies. But Lim was “an exceptional case”, she said, that “requires an exceptional outcome”.