Man arrested for Otara death

A Gilbert Road house in Otara where a woman was murdered overnight. Picture / Greg Bowker

A man taken to hospital after a south Auckland attack which left one woman dead and a second fighting for her life has been charged with murder.

The man, 36, was also charged with assault and threatening to kill the badly hurt woman, 25.

He was due to appear in the Manukau District Court tomorrow.

Ambulance officers and police found the dead woman, 36, and the other badly hurt woman in the lounge of a house in Gilbert Road, Otara just after midnight.

The man was found at the rear of the address with minor injuries and was taken to hospital. He was discharged after treatment into police care and charged later in the day.

Police said the dead woman's body remained where it was found for most of the day and was likely to be removed for a post mortem by the end of the afternoon. The post mortem was due to start tomorrow.

The critically ill woman remained in a life-threatening state after emergency surgery at Auckland Hospital.

Police found a machete and several other items at the house, but said until the post mortem had been done, it was too soon to say the machete had been used in the attack on either woman.

They said it was possible the injured woman was trying to protect the dead woman.

Seven children were in the house during the attack, six of them the children of the dead woman. The seventh child was a relative.

Police said none of the children witnessed the attack.

The names of the dead and injured women had yet to be released.

- NZPA