Body in car: Murder defendant who drove ex-partner’s body to Manukau Police Station to keep name suppressed

The man approached the Manukau Police Station's front counter on December 30.

A man who was charged with murder after showing up at Counties Manukau Police Station with a dead body in his car will keep his identity secret until trial, a judge decided today.

But the Herald can report for the first time that the woman who died was his former partner.

The woman’s identity will also be kept secret until trial next year so as not to cause undue hardship for their young children, Justice Peter Andrew decided at the conclusion of a brief hearing this afternoon in the High Court at Auckland.

Authorities reported the man’s arrest on December 30 last year, after the 24-year-old showed up at the front counter of the South Auckland police station.

The woman was found dead in the vehicle a short time later, prompting a large-scale investigation, authorities said at the time.

He was charged that same day with assault with intent to injure, but prosecutors withdrew that charge days later so that he could be charged with murder instead.

A Māngere Bridge property was cordoned off with emergency tape in the days following the grisly police station discovery, with a white forensic tent set up in the front yard.

It was Crown prosecutor Aysser Al-Janabi who requested during today’s hearing that name suppression remain in place for the defendant, the woman who died and their children. Defence lawyer Brandyn Gloyn did not oppose the application.

Justice Andrew also suppressed many of the “peculiar or unusual features” of the allegations against the defendant, including what is alleged to have transpired prior to his arrival at the police station.

A trial has been scheduled for June 2024.