A woman who wanted to flee Christchurch after becoming embroiled with a gang and set fire in her own flat has been jailed for more than four years.

An Auckland grandmother has been charged with murder by arson, stealing $12,500 from her employer and damaging their products by fire on three occasions.

Police have referred two teenagers to Youth Aid after a school administration block was gutted by a blaze just before 4am yesterday.

Jolon Sweeney says he helped teen killer Jeremy McLaughlin because he was fearful for his own life.

Officers confronted by 29 rioting inmates at the Spring Hill prison would have been overwhelmed if they tried to use pepper spray, a prison boss says.

About 100 inmates have been relocated to other prisons as abandoned cell blocks of the Spring Hill jail where rioters caused chaos yesterday are investigated.

Police charged a man with arson after he was caught by a security guard hired to protect vacant houses from suspicious fires, including one that razed a house.

The Government will review rules on disclosure of criminal histories after the revelation that Jade Bayliss' murderer had killed before.

The Government will review rules around disclosure of criminal histories following the revelation that Jade Bayliss' murderer had killed before.

Police have confirmed that they knew of the dark past of convicted killer Jeremy McLaughlin, but were unable to tell anybody about it.

The mother of an Australian teenager killed by the man convicted of murdering Christchurch schoolgirl Jade Bayliss has described him as "evil".

Jeremy McLaughlin, found guilty today of murdering Christchurch schoolgirl Jade Bayliss, had also killed a child in Australia.

The man accused of strangling Christchurch schoolgirl Jade Bayliss before torching her family home took the stand today to "clarify events" around her death.

The flatmate of the man accused of murdering Christchurch teenager Jade Bayliss has today pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory after the fact of burglary and arson.

Jeremy McLaughlin loved the mother of the 13-year-old girl he's accused of murdering, but the love was unrequited, a court heard today.

Murdered schoolgirl Jade Bayliss had "no respect" for her mother's boyfriend, and used to mock his speech impediment, a court has been told.

Jade Bayliss was strangled, had socks stuffed in her mouth, and her family home was set on fire by Jeremy McLaughlin, an ex-partner of her mother, a court has heard.

The head teacher at a Northland kindergarten has made a plea to the community to help catch the culprits who are destroying their playground with vandalism that now includes an arson attack.

Forty years after 15 people died in the firebombing of Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub, controversy and conspiracy theories still surround what was until the Port Arthur massacre, Australia's worst mass murder.

A Rotorua woman whose home was torched by her ex-partner is shocked he has been released from jail after serving just over one-third of his sentence.

Three houses worth a total of almost $2.5 million in the Auckland suburb of Westmere will have to be rebuilt after an arson attack on one being renovated.