Karl Nuku was part of a group that called themselves the Killer Clown Fiends. Photo / Herald on Sunday
Karl Nuku was part of a group that called themselves the Killer Clown Fiends. Photo / Herald on Sunday
A “Killer Clown Fiend” who beat a man to death with a claw hammer has run out of time to try to find out information about a witness who testified against him.
Karl Nuku is currently serving life in prison with a non-parole period of 18 years for the 2010 murder of Dean Browne in Wellington.
He was part of a group calling itself the Killer Clown Fiends, which beat Browne to death in an Oriental Bay flat and then dumped his body in New Plymouth. Mikhail Pandey-Johnson, the leader of the drug-dealing gang, was also convicted of murder.
On Pandey-Johnson’s instructions, Nuku repeatedly struck Browne over the head with a hammer before his body was dumped in the garage of a house.
Although Pandey-Johnson was not at the killing, he was found to be the mastermind behind the plot as he instructed Nuku to carry out the murder, and was found to be equally culpable of the crime.
In 2017, Nuku made a Privacy Act request - from behind bars - to access evidence used in the case against him.
Police provided some of the information he asked for but withheld information relating to a witness who testified against Nuku and Pandey-Johnson.
Nuku alleged that Police’s decision to withhold material was in breach of the Privacy Act and made a claim to the Human Rights Review Tribunal hoping to have the full tranche of evidence released to him.
Attached to his claim was correspondence he had with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner that referred to the witness by her real name. In response, the tribunal issued an interim non-publication order, which Nuku unsuccessfully appealed in the High Court.
Part of the information Nuku wanted released related to details about the woman who had been at the flat when Browne was beaten to death, and who gave evidence against him at the trial.
Karl Nuku (left) and Mikhail Pandey-Johnson are sentenced in 2011. Photo / NZ Herald
Her name was permanently suppressed by the court.
In 2018, Nuku appealed the suppression orders through the Human Rights Review Tribunal, claiming that the High Court’s orders didn’t have legal grounding when it came to his separate claim to the tribunal.
Justice Rebecca Ellis disagreed and warned Nuku to be careful about complying with the order in future.
Since that failed appeal Nuku made no steps to advance his claim through the tribunal and he didn’t respond to a final-minute asking if he wished to continue his claim in August of last year.
Yesterday the tribunal issued a notice saying it would be striking-out Nuku’s claim against the Commissioner of Police.
The decision stated: “... it is apparent that Mr Nuku has lost interest in his claim.
“This is evident not only by the long period of inactivity but also by Mr Nuku’s failure to take either of the recent opportunities offered to him to keep the claim alive.
“It follows that he lacks any intention to bring the proceeding to a conclusion in a timely way.”
Nuku has made the headlines several times since he was jailed for life in 2011. In 2017 he petitioned Parliament for prisoners to be able to artificially inseminate women from behind bars, via artificial insemination.
His petition, which also included a call for prisoners to be able to give blood and donate organs, was presented to the house by then Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard in 2017. In 2014, a message from Nuku was reportedly posted on a Facebook page where prison inmates are able to advertise for female pen pals, calling himself an “out-spoken kind of guy” who loves piercings and bright coloured hair.
