A 28-year-old man who was given up for adoption allegedly subjected his birth mother to more than 12 months of abuse.

Police in Kuwait are investigating the alleged rape of an NZ woman at a birthday party.

After more than 10 hours of deliberation the jury in the trial of a former national figure accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl has still not been able to reach verdicts.

67-year-old convicted of fondling women's breasts while they visited his massage and acupuncture clinic.

Malcolm George Chaston has been sentenced to preventive detention for murdering Christchurch woman Vanessa Anne Pickering, whose body was found down a bank near Christchurch's Godley Head more than a year ago.