Two a penny

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Killed photojournalist’s family seeks justice

By LYN HUMPHREYS – Monday, 05 January 2009

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SEEKING ANSWERS: Nikki McKinnon, sister of New Plymouth photographer Trent Keegan, has returned home to be with her parents in the wake of her only sibling’s brutal death in Kenya last May.

TRENT KEEGAN: Found in a ditch with severe head injuries.

Trent Keegan's family is calling for the New Zealand Government to honour its promise and fully investigate his unsolved murder in Nairobi, Kenya.
But two men charged with assaulting and robbing the 33-year-old have recently been acquitted on the charges.
The Taranaki photographer was found bashed to death in a ditch in Nairobi in May.
Trent's sister, Nikki McKinnon, has just returned with her Australian cameraman husband from London, England, to live in New Zealand.
No one has been charged with his murder.
Her says her mission is now to support her parents – her mother lives in New Plymouth and her father in Auckland – and to fight to get the Government to assist in unravelling the mystery of his death.
"We're wanting to hear from the New Zealand Government on their promise to investigate further pending the outcome of the Kenyan inquiry," she said yesterday.
To date, the family was deeply disappointed that any government assistance had been totally absent and that their friends, working in Africa on their behalf, had been treated badly, she said.
"They issued a press release and we never heard from them again," Ms McKinnon said.
Shortly after Trent's death, former Prime Minister Helen Clark had called for a thorough investigation, she said.
Foreign Affairs is seeking further information from the Kenyan authorities in regard to the court case and whether an appeal or further investigations are being undertaken. .
The minister declined to comment on the verdict or Kenyan justice system saying it would be inappropriate at this time, his spokesperson said.
The minister declined to comment on the verdict or Kenyan justice system saying it would be inappropriate at this time, his spokesperson said.
"We (New Zealand) have only one representative for the east coast of Africa and they are based in Pretoria. New Zealand's closest embassy is in Pretoria, South Africa.
"To date they have been pretty uninterested.
"You wouldn't want to find yourself in a position that you wanted help from the New Zealand Government in Africa, that's for sure," Ms McKinnon said.
Ms McKinnon believed it was unlikely now that anyone would continue with his work." Trent, who was working on a Tanzanian story, documenting local people's lives, had been concerned that his life was in danger. There's a lot of very powerful people affected and they have a lot of interests at stake.
"It's almost too big a story for some people. The arrested men recently acquitted had been in possession of Trent's cellphone.''She believes that Trent was probably the victim of muggers. Certainly, did you have to kill the guy? It's very final. Certainly, did you have to kill the guy? It's very final.''
Several friends in Africa had continued to follow the case through on behalf of the family. One, Brian MacCormaic, was concerned enough for his own safety to leave Nairobi, she said.
Mr MacCormaic had been treated "pretty poorly'' when he tried to contact New Zealand's representatives in Pretoria, Ms McKinnon said.
Mr MacCormaic told a weekend paper, "it very much looks like the police in Nairobi and the New Zealand High Commission in Pretoria are not interested in putting any more effort into finding the true killers of Trent''.
Ms McKinnon said she and her husband had been in New Zealand for just two weeks. "My first focus had been my family.''
They realised that bringing anyone to justice would not bring Trent back. While Christmas had been hard for them, "it's tough every day,'' she said. Ms McKinnon said she and her husband were yet to decide where in New Zealand they would live and work. "Certainly New Plymouth is on the list.''
She has worked as Walt Disney's director in London for nine years.

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Swedish cop killed in camper crash

Holiday road toll now 15

Thursday, 01 January 2009

Police to target speedsters this year

One of the first people to die on the roads this year was a Swedish police inspector, who was killed when the campervan in which he and his family were travelling crashed this morning.
About 10.
He appeared to have been unable to make a left hand turn at the intersection, and skidded across SH 47 before rolling down a 20m bank into a small creek, said Sergeant Marc Clausen.15am today, the campervan driven by 50-year-old Goran Oskarsson left the road at the intersection of state highways 47 and 48, near the central North Island settlement of National Park. His wife was flown to Waikato Hospital with broken bones and head injuries, and his three teenage children were taken by ambulance to hospital with minor injuries.
Mr Oskarsson died at the scene.
Next of kin had been advised.
Identification on Mr Oskarsson indicated that he was a police inspector in Sweden, Mr Clausen said.
That involved the death of a motorcyclist found dead just outside Queenstown.
The new year has started badly with four road deaths, though the time one of those was killed is yet to be clarified.
About 1. The accident may have happened either side of midnight.
Around the same time, a 51-year-old Balclutha man failed to negotiate a moderate right hand bend on Cannibal Bay Road near Owaka, 27km southwest of Balclutha.30am, a 33-year-old Levin man was hit by a northbound car in the town centre while walking along the middle of State Highway 57, police said.
Emergency services were called about 10am after passing motorists saw the vehicle, but the accident was believed to have happened one or two hours after midnight.
His vehicle went down a steep incline, rolling a number of times before stopping about 50m from the road, police said.
Local police, the coroner and a serious crash investigator were investigating the cause of the crash.
The man was the sole occupant of the vehicle.
She was 28-year-old Lauren Leigh Stoneley of Hornby, Christchurch.
Meanwhile, police have named the woman killed in Canterbury on Tuesday.30pm.
Ms Stoneley was the passenger in a car being driven by her boyfriend when it left the road and hit a tree on Arundel-Rakaia Gorge Rd, near Alford Forest, about 8.
The Christmas-New Year road toll now stands at 15, with three and a half days of the period remaining.
The man suffered minor injuries.
The road toll for the whole of 2008 was estimated at 359, the lowest in 49 years, but may change when the timing of the Otago fatality is confirmed. .
The road toll was a decrease on the 421 deaths in 2007, and 393 in 2006, according to the Ministry of Transport.
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Hewitt to warn soldiers of perils of drink

– Monday, 15 December 2008

The army has engaged former All Black Norm Hewitt to teach soldiers about the dangers of alcohol abuse as it emerged yesterday Burnham soldiers were sent home from East Timor after a drunken pub crawl while on duty.
A New Zealand Army spokeswoman said alcohol was a concern for the entire country and the army as a section of society was no exception.
Hewitt has built a reputation as a responsible-drinking advocate since being forced to admit he had a drinking problem when he smashed through a glass sliding door at a Queenstown apartment in 1999.
"The New Zealand Defence Force has very strict policy with regards to the consumption of alcohol while on duty and takes these incidents seriously.
The army released a statement yesterday saying eight Burnham soldiers had been sent home for drinking while on duty.
"The soldiers received between 12 and 27 days detention in the services correction establishment at Burnham Military Camp.
"The breach of military procedures was dealt with firmly by a summary trial in Timor-Leste following a military police investigation."
The six-month posting to East Timor was a "dry mission", it said.
The soldiers got drunk, swore at locals and drove their army truck.
Eight armed soldiers had abandoned a patrol of the capital, Dili, and gone drinking in two bars and in a United Nations cafe, a Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.
The section commander in charge at the time of the pub crawl was demoted from corporal to private.
The army spokeswoman yesterday said none of the soldiers had been discharged from the army.
The programme was supported by Major General Lou Gardiner, the Chief of the Army, who felt strongly about the issue, the spokeswoman said.
The army's alcohol awareness programme was not in direct response to the incident, but as a "responsible employer" it had been looking at the problem for some time, the spokeswoman said. .
At Burnham, troops were spoken to by medical officers and senior staff, including the chief commander and formation sergeant major.
Their regular tasks in theatre include carrying out patrols, liaising with locals and providing assistance to UN police.
New Zealand troops recently left for the sixth, six-month rotation of about 150 Kiwi troops to serve in East Timor.

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Number of Kiwis closing in on 5 million

Thursday, 13 November 2008

The total number of New Zealanders worldwide has surged closer to five million, but overcrowding shouldn't be an issue as an estimated 600,000 live overseas.
Statistics New Zealand figures issued yesterday show the population in New Zealand increased by more than 40,000, to 4.
New Zealand remains a drop in a global population ocean of more than 6 billion but with about 600,000 Kiwis overseas, has the second-highest overseas population per head, behind Ireland.28 million, in the year to the end of September. .
Last year 35,700 more people were born than died.
Aging "baby boomers" contributed to the highest rate of population growth in the 65 years and over group, at 2.
Government statistician Geoff Bascand said New Zealand, along with other OECD countries, had an aging population as a result of low fertility and low mortality. However, in the past decade, the biggest growth was in the number of men and women aged 90 and over.1 per cent.8 per cent to 5600 and women increased 50.
The male population aged 90 plus rose 72. The Health Ministry says lower smoking rates and better and earlier intervention in heart disease are among reasons we're living longer.3 per cent to 14,700.

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Man dies after van hits house-movers

By KAREN MANGNALL – Thursday, 06 November 2008

A Papakura man is dead after his van ploughed into convoy of house-movers in south Auckland early earlier today.
Police said Dean John Candler, 30, died at the scene of the crash on Great South Rd, Manurewa close to the intersection with Corin Ave about 1.
Constable Steve Shaskey said six trucks were in a convoy "lit up like a Christmas tree" while moving two houses.15am.
The van passed the first house transporter but clipped the corner of the second house, veering head-on into a truck following with house-moving equipment.
The lead driver "jumped on the radio" to warn the rest of the convoy about a white van driving past erratically in the opposite direction.
The dead man was the only occupant of the van which was extensively damaged along the driver's side.
"The truck had almost skidded to a stop by the time the van hit it," Mr Shaskey said.
Alcohol and driver fatigue are being investigated as causes for the crash, Mr Shaskey said.
No-one else was injured.
"Nobody knows what he was doing out at that time of night.
Police would like to hear from anyone who can tell them what Mr Candler was doing in the hours before the crash.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Counties Manukau serious crash unit on (09) 261-1302. .