One of the five men charged with murder after Samuel Curle was left critically injured on a highway near the northern edge of Auckland can now be identified.
Name suppression has lapsed for Benjamin Ta’Ilua Gabriel, a 31-year-old labourer from Morningside who has been described by police as having links to the Head Hunters gang.
A 42-year-old co-defendant from Glen Eden has also lost his bid for continued name suppression at the High Court level, but it remains in place while he decides if he will contest the decision through the Court of Appeal. The three remaining co-defendants are set to have a name suppression hearing next month.
Curle, 36, was found on the Kaipara Coast Highway near Helensville in the middle of the night on November 6 last year.