New Zealand Herald

Class Cop - Hush Money - Sulfer Death - Steven Wallace - Policeman Shooter - Prison Escaper - Callous Racism - Property Rights - Bottrill Inquiry - Kelly Browne - E And Pot - Plea Changed

CLASS COP: A South Auckland constable has become the country's first classroom-based policeman, setting up office at James Cook High School in Manurewa to combat youth crime. Constable Bill Hopa, a youth-aid officer, is based at the school three days a week with a brief to bridge the gap between youth and police.
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HUSH MONEY: The former Airways Corporation executive alleged to have received a hush-money payout over multimillion-dollar insider trading claims says he will produce evidence to the Government. Ezequiel Trumper said last night that he was prepared to provide information to support allegations New Zealand First leader Winston Peters made in Parliament.

SULFER DEATH: A woman thought to have been killed by sulphur fumes in a Rotorua motel room in February was a well-known Austrian actor who collapsed while on the phone to a friend. Her son, Alexander Rueprecht, said the death of Ellen Umlauf-Rueprecht had caused a media sensation in Austria and Germany, where she found fame as an actor about 1960.

STEVEN WALLACE: NEW PLYMOUTH - Police say Steven Wallace threw a golf club at an officer, threatened to kill him and still had a baseball bat in his hand when the officer fatally shot him. The central district police commander, Superintendent Mark Lammas, said facts to emerge from the investigation to date indicated that Mr Wallace had made repeated threats to kill the officer.

POLICEMAN SHOOTER: The policeman who shot Steven Wallace dead in Waitara early on Sunday will have his application for name suppression heard in the High Court at Auckland this afternoon. When the case was dealt with in the High Court yesterday Justice Robertson adjourned it to today because he thought the application warranted informed consideration and ought not be dealt with "on the run."

PRISON ESCAPER: Jail managers allegedly ignor-ed warnings that accused killer Travis Burns had been trying to climb over the wall of Mt Eden Prison a week before he escaped. Prison sources told the Herald yesterday that a series of staff blunders aided Burns and fellow remand inmate Tommy Nikau in their escape from the central Auckland jail.

PETROL PRICES: Petrol prices are on the rise again with BP leading a 3c-a-litre hike and warning motorists to get used to fluctuating costs. Mobil, Shell and Caltex had matched the increase by mid-afternoon yesterday, blaming the move on the rising costs of crude oil and refined petrol.

CALLOUS RACISM: A police chief has criticised the family of a Cook Islands man charged with stabbing a constable in Mangere as "callous people who have different values." Inspector Geoff Brand, the acting Counties Manukau commander, says a woman ordered the stabbed officer and his colleague off the Esekielu family's property as the constable lay in danger of bleeding to death on the doorstep early on Wednesday.

PROPERTY RIGHTS: Equal property rights for gay and de facto couples are a virtual certainty after Parliament voted to include them in laws due to be passed soon. In a conscience vote yesterday MPs backed a motion that would see yet-to-be-drafted changes to the Matrimonial Property Act extending the existing property rights of married couples to gay and de facto couples who split up.

BOTTRILL INQUIRY: GISBORNE - Former Gisborne pathologist Dr Michael Bottrill may have only had three months' specialist training in reading slides containing cervical cells. His qualifications and experience came under scrutiny from Scottish cervical screening expert Euphemia McGoogan during the Gisborne cervical cancer inquiry yesterday.

KELLY BROWNE: Insurance company AMI is running third in the race to register its Kelly Browne advertising catchphrase as a trademark. The Intellectual Property Office has confirmed that two other people had applied to register the name before AMI lodged its application on April 12.

E AND POT: A drug expert has cautioned the Auckland coroner against linking cannabis with the designer drug Ecstasy. Professor Sally Casswell of Auckland University said there was no evidence that cannabis had killed as Ecstasy had.

PLEA CHANGED: A 40-year-old West Auckland man was given a life sentence for a drug-related murder yesterday after changing his plea in the High Court at Auckland. Michael John Hindman initially denied murdering 37-year-old Bruce Barlow last May 17.

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