A Moment in Crime is a NZ Herald podcast with more than 1million views.
A Moment in Crime is a NZ Herald podcast with more than 1million views.
In the New Year’s episode of Herald podcast A Moment In Crime, writer and host Anna Leask looks back at cases of cops before the courts in New Zealand. If there are other cases you would like to hear more about email anna.leask@nzme.co.nz.
From the start of 2021 to November 2023 a total of 333 police staff - constabulary and non-sworn - were investigated for alleged criminal offending.
The constabulary includes recruits right up to senior inspectors and top cops. Non sworn staff are in admin or support roles within the organisation.
They have murdered and raped people. They have stolen and lied. They’ve bought and sold drugs. They have abused children. They’ve assaulted their partners. They have been violent. They have tried to pervert the course of justice.
Instead of upholding the law as their job requires - these men and women were breaking it.
Here, A Moment In Crime host Anna Leask looks at memorable examples of crooked cop staff brought to justice by their workmates since the early 2010s.
In February 2019, the 47-year-old was sentenced to eight months home detention after pleading guilty to indecent communication with a person under 16.
Gavin Giles was sentenced to home detention for an inappropriate online relationship with a US teen.
He left the police soon after the charges were laid.
Judge David Sharp revealed Giles sent indecent photos to the girl and said his offending was “premeditated” and “had an aspect of grooming and sexual predator behaviour”.
Jamie Foster - rapist
Foster was jailed for six years for sexually violating and indecently assaulting a female colleague.
The offending happened at a Kerikeri motel early on February 5, 2019 when Foster and the victim were part of a group deployed to help police the annual Waitangi Day events at the Treaty Grounds.
Foster denied the charges, claiming any sexual contact with the victim was consensual and a “pre-arranged hook-up”.
Jamie Foster. Photo / Sam Hurley
But after a two-week trial in the Auckland District Court, a jury found him guilty on both counts.
At sentencing, the victim said Foster was “sick, self-entitled” and had arrogant needs.
Judge Evangelos Thomas told Foster the evidence against him left no doubt.
Malifa was sentenced to 400 hours of community work, 12 months supervision, six months community detention and ordered to pay $200 to each of his victims.
Judge Taumaunu said Malifa was conducting his inquiries in a “predatory manner” and showed “abusive” conduct toward his victims.
“Your offending in this way is absolutely unacceptable. It was dishonest,” he said.
“Not only was it dishonest, you were manipulating victims who were already vulnerable as a result of your contact with them and you were taking advantage of them.”
The mother of their three children died from a single gunshot to the head, less than three weeks after she told McLean she was leaving him for family friend, Garry Duggan.
Benjamin Peter McLean was sentenced to life imprisonment. Photo / Facebook
McLean also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Duggan.
At his sentencing, McLean offered an apology to his three children and wider family.
“The real victims of this death are my three children. The two most important adults in their lives are now gone,” McLean said.
“Bert was the love of my life who broke my heart and my soul, and I will live with regret and the torment for having been involved in her death for the rest of my life.”
He must serve 17 years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
Wang had been a cop for four years and had earlier worked in a drink-driving prevention team.
He was caught drink-driving in central Auckland after a visit to a karaoke bar on July 24, 2022.
At a checkpoint he blew 501mcg of alcohol per litre of breath, double the legal limit.
Bo Wang, 33, who was caught drink-driving, then snuck into a police station to destroy his own evidential blood samples. Photo / George Block
He later used a colleague’s swipe card to access the Harbour Bridge police station to burgle his blood samples. He took them home and tipped them down the toilet, meaning drink-driving charges could not be brought against him.
Wang quickly admitted his offending when it was uncovered by colleagues.
Peter Pakau pleaded guilty to 14 charges relating to methamphetamine, accepting bribes, corruption, conspiring to pervert the course of justice and accessing the police computer system.
Pakau was a Henderson-based constable, but resigned soon after he was arrested and charged over his part in a drug ring that involved Head Hunters gang members.
He initially denied the charges but later admitted that he organised drug runs and tipped off gangsters.
Peter Pakau resigned after he was arrested and charged for his part in a drug ring that involved Head Hunters gang members.
He accepted money as payment for getting a mechanic to hand over a Chrysler vehicle which was being worked on, and accepted a bribe of an iPad in exchange for getting a person beyond police tape at a Henderson address that had been recently raided.
In November 2014, Pakau was jailed for eight years and four months.
The North Shore constable was also charged with using a police uniform in circumstances likely to lead a person to believe she was a police employee.
Charnley was not physically involved in stealing the car, but was accused of supplying her own police uniform to those who were.
Karis Charnley featured in the 2006 television show NZ Police College.
Her case was eventually dismissed by Judge Brian Callaghan due to a lack of hard evidence pinning her to the crime.
But Judge Callaghan was not convinced she is innocent.
“I cannot say that I am convinced about the defendant’s explanation. I remain suspicious ... but I am unable to be sure that she took part in the pre-planning of the offending generally,” he said.
“So therefore I have reasonable doubt about this. The prosecution has failed to prove these charges beyond reasonable doubt, and they are dismissed.”
Charnley resigned from the police.
Timothy Sarah - meth dealing prosecutor
Timothy Sarah was imprisoned for four years after he was convicted of supplying and possessing methamphetamine, and dishonestly using the Police National Intelligence Application.
On more than one occasion, the drug deals happened during lunch breaks just a short distance from where he worked at Auckland District Court.
Or sometimes the 1g snap-lock bags would be handed to friends at the gym carpark, where he was a regular at Les Mills.
Timothy Sarah. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Intercepted text messages showed the lawyer talking about working different “body parts”, which police say was code for P.
Episodes of A Moment In Crime are usually released monthly and, so far, Leask has covered more than 55 cases including the murders of Grace Millane, Scott Guy, Austin Hemmings, Carmen Thomas, Karen Aim; the deaths of the Kahui twins, the Edgeware Rd murders, the Christchurch House of Horrors and the massacres at Raurimu and Aramoana.
Herald podcast A Moment In Crime has had more than 1 million downloads.
A Moment in Crime is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released monthly.
The series is hosted by Anna Leask, a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years. If you have a crime or case you would like to hear more about email anna.leask@nzme.co.nz.
Since 2019, A Moment in Crime has produced over 50 episodes, and has been downloaded over 1 million times, with listeners in over 170 countries. It was nominated for Best True Crime Podcast at the 2024 Radio and Podcast Awards.
