R v v
[2025] NZHC 1533
•12 June 2025
SUPPRESSION ORDERS EXIST – SEE PARAGRAPHS [16] AND [17] IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND AUCKLAND REGISTRY
I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA TĀMAKI MAKAURAU ROHE
CRI-2024-004-006962
[2025] NZHC 1533
THE KING v
V
Hearing: 12 June 2025 Appearances:
R M A McCoubrey for Crown
S N B Wimsett KC as Standby Counsel
Judgment:
12 June 2025
JUDGMENT OF LANG J
[involvement hearing]
This judgment was delivered by Justice Lang On 12 June 2025 at 2.30 pm
Registrar/Deputy Registrar Date:…………………………
Solicitors/counsel:
Meredith Connell, Office of the Crown Solicitor, Auckland S N B Wimsett KC, Auckland
R v V [2025] NZHC 1533 [12 June 2025]
[1] V is charged with murdering Mr Stephen Thorpe on 24 August 2024. In a judgment delivered on 14 May 2025, I found that V was unfit to stand trial.1 This judgment records my findings under s 10 of the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003 as to whether V committed the act that led to Mr Thorpe’s death.
[2] I base my findings on information provided to me by the Crown including statements taken from witnesses, ESR reports and photographs.
The evidence
Mr Thorpe’s death
[3] Mr Thorpe was 54 years of age. He worked every day at an office that was situated under the clubrooms of the Blockhouse Bay Tennis Club. He was a well-known figure around the tennis club.
[4] On the morning of Saturday 24 August 2024, Mr Thorpe was working on his laptop in his office at the tennis club. Shortly after 11.30 am he walked out the main doors of the building. A few seconds later another person in the building, Mr Joel Haydon, heard Mr Thorpe calling for help. When Mr Haydon went to investigate, he saw Mr Thorpe lying on the ground on the driveway in front of the tennis club building. A man whom Mr Haydon did not know was standing over Mr Thorpe holding what he believed to be a pair of scissors. Mr Haydon could see that Mr Thorpe was bleeding heavily. He ran back inside the building and called emergency services at 11.34 am. He then ran outside again to find that Mr Thorpe had moved a short distance from where he had previously been and the man with the scissors had gone.
[5] Other persons at the tennis club then came to Mr Thorpe’s assistance and tried to stop the bleeding. One of these was a doctor. He could find no pulse but was unable to see the source of the bleeding. Police and ambulance officers arrived at 11.43 am and they, too, found that Mr Thorpe had no pulse and was not breathing. They
1 R v V [2025] NZHC 1148.
observed a single stab wound on the side of his neck. An ECG reading showed that Mr Thorpe’s heart was not pumping due to loss of blood. It was therefore deemed futile to take further steps to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at 11.45 am.
[6] Mr Thorpe’s body was then removed to the Auckland City Hospital mortuary. A post-mortem examination subsequently determined that he had died from blood loss caused by the stab wound to his neck.
Involvement of V
[7] V’s friends noticed that his personality began to change after he began taking drugs on a regular basis in or about 2013. Between 2015 and 2016, his friends were aware that he was taking hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD, as well as cannabis. By 2019, he was using drugs regularly and this was having a marked effect on him. V’s friends also noted that he was constantly vaping.
[8] V’s friends noticed that by 2020 he had started to talk about “seeing things”, including the devil. He also displayed bouts of anger they had never seen before. In 2022, he was subject to a compulsory care order under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992. Then, in 2023, his friends observed him acting irrationally and responding to auditory or visual hallucinations.
[9] One of V’s friends, who is now a serving police officer, recalls that V habitually carried knives on his person for many years. On 7 September 2023, this person received a text message from V stating “[redacted] is my real name which I go by now [redacted] never really existed”. At or about the same time, V opened social media accounts under the name [redacted].
[10] The significance of this is that, when the police searched the area around Mr Thorpe’s body, they found a knife in a semi-open position lying inside a drain. This appeared to be covered in blood. Engraved on the knife was [the name used by V in opening social media accounts].
[11] At the time of Mr Thorpe’s death V lived in the vicinity of the tennis club. CCTV footage downloaded from a camera at another address near the tennis club
showed a person walking towards the tennis club past a camera on a nearby residential street at 11.26 am on 24 August 2024. The same person was then shown walking in the other direction to at 11.36 am. This person was wearing a blue “hoodie” and dark green pants and was carrying a dark or black shoulder bag. Still photographs taken from the footage show that the person has a strong physical resemblance to V. The police found a blue hoodie on the clothesline at V’s address when they subsequently searched it following V’s arrest.
[12] Forensic analysis of items found at the scene and taken from V also link him to the death of Mr Thorpe. At the time of V’s arrest he was wearing a pair of shoes that appeared to have bloodstaining on them. Forensic analysis of a DNA profile extracted from the bloodstain provides extremely strong scientific support for the proposition that the DNA originated from Mr Thorpe. In addition, DNA was extracted from a bloodstain located on the inside front right pocket of a pair of trousers worn by
V. Upon analysis this was also found to provide extremely strong scientific support for the proposition that some of the DNA detected in the sample belonged to Mr Thorpe.
[13] Further, a vaping device found at the scene was very similar to those located at V’s home address. A DNA profile taken from the vaping device found at the scene provides extremely strong scientific support for the proposition that some of the DNA detected in the sample from the mouthpiece of the device originated from Mr Thorpe and some from V. Finally, DNA extracted from the bloodstaining on the knife found at the scene was also consistent with having come from Mr Thorpe.
Conclusion
[14] Taking the evidence in totality, it establishes on the balance of probabilities that V left his address and went to the tennis club at approximately 11.30 am on the morning of 24 August 2024. He was armed at that time with the knife that was later found in the drain. When he arrived at the tennis club he must have encountered Mr Thorpe. It is not known what then happened. However, I am satisfied that V used the knife to inflict the fatal stab wound on Mr Thorpe. He then disposed of the knife by dropping it in the drain as he left the scene and returned to his own address.
[15] I am therefore satisfied on the balance of probabilities that V committed the act that caused Mr Thorpe’s death.
Suppression
[16] Up until now the news media have not been able to report any details of what has occurred in this proceeding. However, given the stage the proceeding has now reached this issue needs to be re-visited. I therefore partially lift the suppression order that has been in place until now. V’s name and identifying particulars remain suppressed from publication until further order of the Court. Other than in that respect this judgment may be published.
[17] I lift suppression of the result of my judgment delivered on 14 May 2025 but not the reasoning.
Lang J
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