A 16-year-old boy has appeared in court charged with the murder of an off-duty police officer.

An off-duty police officer stabbed to death in his own home appears to have known his attacker but police will not comment on whether the accused killer was a relative.

Two people have been charged with assault after a man was fatally struck by a car during a street brawl in south Auckland early this morning.

A woman police constable was attacked by a motorist she pulled over for drunken driving.

Cops are being told "anything goes" when it comes to protecting themselves against dangerous and violent offenders.

Notorious double murderer Graeme Burton has been caught with a knife in his prison cell - sparking a prison security investigation.

Soap's plot echoes the horrifying Sophie Elliott saga, which saw a young student brutally killed by her tutor.

The two surviving daughters of multiple-infant killer Dominique Cottrez describe her as a doting mother who selflessly devoted herself to her family.

A neighbour heard death threats coming from a Wellington council flat where a woman was brutally murdered.

Veronique Courjault was convicted last year of murdering three of her newborn children. Her husband discovered two of the corpses in a freezer.

The killer of a 3-year-old boy continued to protest her innocence today as she began a life sentence for his murder.

Police hunting the killer of Manawatu farmer Scott Guy are canvassing local farmers in the hope of uncovering information about firearm thefts.

As detectives try to find dairy farmer Scott Guy's killer, his widow is in hiding in Hawkes Bay.

A mother-of-two is being hailed a hero after saving a woman from an attack by a hammer-wielding man who then pursued the pair and rammed her car during a violent car chase.