Man charged with murder remanded

Allison McPhee. Photo / Supplied

A 52-year-old man charged with the murder of a Wellington woman found beaten to death in her Newtown flat last week has been remanded in custody.

The body of Allison McPhee, 42, was found at the council-owned Newtown Park Flats on Mansfield St, last Wednesday.

She had been dead for three to five days.

Police arrested the man, who knew Ms McPhee, this afternoon.

He appeared in Wellington District Court a short time later, Acting Detective Inspector Scott Miller said.

The man, who has name suppression, was remanded in custody until August 26.

Ms McPhee, unemployed, was known to police, and had lived a fairly transient lifestyle.

Mr Miller said yesterday that it appeared that Ms McPhee was killed as she tried to flee through the front door of her flat. Her attacker then escaped through a window.

Police were still looking for the murder weapon, which could have been a piece of wood or a metal rod.

The flat is on the same street as a halfway house where Kelly Noema, 37, was stabbed to death last August, a day after he was bailed there.

- NZPA