Fugitive texts himself down

Worthy Redeemed. Photo / Supplied

Gidday mate. Worthy here. Do you know any cops up this way? I want to hand myself in."

That's the text message manslaughter-accused Worthy Redeemed sent police on Monday afternoon.

On the run after failing to turn up to court to face charges over a horrific triple-fatality crash in Woodened in May, Redeemed was texting from Upper Hutt, where he'd lived previously and had friends. The text was a surprise but police were only too pleased to make transport arrangements for the 38-year-old.

Detective Aaron George called his colleagues who sent a police car to pick up the man formerly known as Lee Errol Silvester from an Upper Hutt bus stop later that evening.

Redeemed appeared in the Upper Hutt District Court on Tuesday charged with failing to appear and was remanded in custody to the Rangiora District Court on December 1.

He is accused of the manslaughter of Jethro Bronson Cooper, 16, Kodee Marie Rapana-Aldersley, 15, and Dean Jonathan McArtney, 21, who were killed when the silver Mitsubishi Mirage they were in collided head-on with a bus on State Highway 1 just south of Woodend.

Police allege Redeemed, the front-seat passenger, reached over and pushed the steering wheel, sending the Mitsubishi into the bus. Redeemed and Amberley 16-year-old Rhys Durham, who was in the rear seat, survived with serious injuries.

Redeemed also faces four charges of dangerous driving causing injury, relating to the bus driver and three passengers who received moderate to minor injuries.