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Many lawyers can expect a certain amount of media coverage but for Feilding lawyer Rob Moodie this has shifted from reporting about his cases to his increasingly bizarre antics.
Embroiled in contempt proceedings as a spin-off from the long-running Berryman bridge saga, the former Dr Moodie changed his name officially to "Miss Alice" and took to wearing women's clothing to court in a protest against "the old boys' network" that runs the judiciary.
He was given an award for "most bizarre conduct by a lawyer" by a British lawyer in the Times.
Doctor jailed
A New Plymouth doctor who committed sexual offences against female patients over a 21-year period was jailed for three years and two months and will never practise medicine again.
Hiran Fernando, 58, was found guilty of 26 indecent assault charges but was acquitted of eight indecent assault charges and three sexual violation charges.
Complainants told the court the doctor played with their nipples, gave unnecessary vaginal examinations and asked questions about their sex lives.
Fernando explained he had legitimate reasons for the examinations and his actions have been misunderstood.
Bank manager's heist
Former bank manager Mark Scott eventually pleaded guilty to armed robbery of his own bank, the Wellsford branch of the BNZ. He allegedly netted $136,000 for himself and his de facto wife, Vanessa.
The pair initially pleaded not guilty but had a change of heart during the depositions hearing. Scott then tried to change his plea back to not guilty but was too late and, in December, was jailed for 6 years.
Vanessa Scott was jailed for 5 years and two accomplices were jailed for five years.
Police in the dock
Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards, suspended when charged with sex crimes against Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas, cried when he and two former police officers, Brad Shipton and Robert Schollum, were acquitted in a High Court trial in Auckland in March.
Mrs Nicholas alleged the offending happened in Rotorua in the 1980s when she was a teenager.
David Charles McSweeney, 54, also a former police officer, was sentenced to life for murder after stabbing his wife, Suzanne Marie McSweeney, up to 30 times.
In 1985, McSweeney arrested Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, the French spies who helped mastermind the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland that year.
In September, a Taranaki police officer who pleaded guilty to drink-driving on the night of a fatal crash was discharged without conviction. Jono Erwood, the sole charge Mokau officer, was charged with drink-driving after he drove his police vehicle to a double fatality on July 9.
Bus driver banned
Auckland bus driver Jilai Gu, 46, has vowed never to drive a bus again after he ploughed into five high-school students on the North Shore.
He faced five charges of careless driving causing injury after he lost control of his Ritchies Coachlines bus on June 27.
He was banned from driving a car for nine months and a commercial vehicle for two years and ordered to pay $5000 in reparation.
Father charged
In the year's biggest and saddest "whodunnit?", four months after the death of twin boys Cru and Chris Kahui, their father, Chris, 21, was charged with their murder.
The 3-month-old twins died from head injuries 12 hours apart in Starship on June 18.
Kahui will defend the charges.
Body in the suitcase
A body was discovered in a suitcase in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour on Good Friday.
Wan Biao's mutilated body was stuffed into the suitcase along with rubbish bags, saws, clothing and a passport.
Hours before the 19-year-old language student's death, an $800,000 ransom demand was made to his parents but no money changed hands.
Four 21-year-old Chinese nationals, Li Zheng, Cui Xiang Xin, Yin Lianda and Wang Yuxi, will stand trial.
Killed in classroom
Tokoroa school teacher Lois Dear, 66, was found dead in her Strathmore Primary School classroom in July, having been beaten to death while preparing for the new school term.
Local man Whetu Te Hiko, 23, was charged with her murder. In court on December 14, Te Hiko entered no plea and was remanded for psychiatric assessment.
Missing hands case
Police searched a landfill for two days for murder victim Tony Stanlake's missing hands after his body was found at Owhiro Bay on Wellington's south coast in July.
Butcher Peter George Leach, 22, admitted being accessory to the murder after the fact. Police accepted Leach had nothing to do with the murder of Mr Stanlake, 62, or the disposal of his body.
Justice Warwick Gendall noted it was also accepted Leach did not remove Mr Stanlake's hands, but had disposed of a bag he believed to contain the severed hands.
He was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment.
