Murdered woman Rae Portman was mixed up in a "man's world" she should have stayed out of, a High Court jury heard today.

A mother of two suffered a violent attack at her Wellington home and could have lain dead for days before her body was found, police say.

A homicide investigation has been launched after the body of a 37-year-old woman, described by neighbours as "bubbly" was found in a Wellington suburb.

More than 63,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the Prime Minister to take action over the Roast Busters.

Sexual abuse support groups, anti-violence campaigners and health practitioners have spoken out in support of victims and to condemn violence against females, in the wake of the Roast Busters revelations.

A string of attacks on the elderly has prompted an appeal to support one of society's most vulnerable groups.

The country's top cop has conceded police could have gone public about the Roast Busters scandal earlier.

An angel on a very fast motorcycle ... that's how a friend described student Tarun Asthana who died after being assaulted in Auckland last week.

Hello Sailor frontman Graham Brazier will be personally monitored by a District Court judge for 18 months to ensure he exorcises his alcohol demons.

Hello Sailor frontman Graham Brazier has been sentenced to intensive supervision and community work for assaulting his former and current partners.

Mayor Len Brown says there has been progress in making central Auckland safe, but admits more needs to be done to prevent deaths like that of Tarun Asthana.

The Royal New Zealand Navy has refused to say whether sailor Grenville McFarland has been stood down from service while on bail.

A 27-year-old has appeared in court in connection with an attack on a trainee primary teacher who died in Auckland hospital this morning.

Hamilton residents are being advised to check their home security following a series of intruder incidents in the east of the city on Sunday.

A 27-year-old man has been arrested over a brutal assault in Central Auckland which left a trainee teacher on life support.

A trainee teacher on life support after a brutal assault in central Auckland is being described by friends as a kind and gentle person.

A key Crown witness against two men charged with the kidnap and murder of Hamilton woman Rae Portman has denied killing her himself.

A man convicted of taking part in the kidnap of Rae Portman says he was threatened to go along with the plan by the man accused of her murder.

"He said he had buried something from a previous job." A witness continues giving evidence in the kidnap and murder trial of Hamilton woman Rae Portman.

A man currently serving time in prison for kidnapping a Hamilton woman has told a High Court trial he had no idea she was destined to be killed.

On the few occasions the quiet and self-effacing Bijan Ebrahimi ventured outside his drab council maisonette on the outskirts of Bristol.

A man accused of the kidnap and murder of a Hamilton woman was seen by witnesses strangling her to death and hiding her body, the Crown says.

A man accused in relation to the kidnap and murder of a Hamilton woman in 2012 did not know she had been killed, a court has heard.

The Queensland Court of Appeal has dismissed suggestions the death of NZ man Brent Dumper at his daughter's house-warming party on the Gold Coast was an accident.

A man accused of killing expatriate New Zealander Robert Wilkinson has been found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

A jury has heard from a man accused of killing a man at Waihi Beach how he stabbed the man because he got a fright after the victim stood on his injured leg.