{"id":266757,"date":"2026-02-04T06:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T06:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266757\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T06:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T06:49:07","slug":"jack-korewha-given-indefinite-detention-for-killing-stepdad-geoffrey-ware-after-meds-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266757\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Korewha given indefinite detention for killing stepdad Geoffrey Ware after meds change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Korewha, 27, appeared in the High Court at Whang\u0101rei on Tuesday for his final hearing. <\/p>\n

On May 9, 2025, only weeks into a change of medication for schizophrenia, Korewha was at his mother\u2019s home she shared with Ware on Mangak\u0101hia Rd in Parakao, Northland.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ware, 55, was sitting in a lounge chair when Korewha plunged a bone-handled knife into his neck.<\/p>\n

Korewha<\/a> placed the bloodied knife on the bench and left, leaving Ware, who died at the scene from blood loss.<\/p>\n

Korewha left in Ware\u2019s car, and was found by police hours later walking along State Highway 14. He had no recollection of stabbing Ware. <\/p>\n

He was taken into custody and charged with a minor offence but two weeks later was charged with murder.<\/p>\n

For the next six months, the court case progressed through the High Court<\/a> awaiting mental health reports, and Korewha was formally declared unfit to stand trial in December.<\/p>\n

At his disposition hearing, Korewha appeared via audio-visual link from the Mason Centre wearing a hospital gown.<\/p>\n

\"RitaRita Tawhai and her partner Geoffrey Ware.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m angry at the system\u2019<\/p>\n

Ware\u2019s partner and Korewha\u2019s mother had her victim impact statement read.<\/p>\n

It detailed the double loss Rita Tawhai felt and her frustration her son wasn\u2019t placed in a secure facility while his medication was being changed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had talked with the mental health team and was disappointed they didn\u2019t help sooner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoor decisions have caused the love of my life to be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said since the incident she had been \u201cleft to deal with the brunt of it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am angry at the system, I have been put through the wringer and left to cope with it. I\u2019ve had so-called family and friends blaming me for things I did not do.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome are cold-hearted and have no idea what\u2019s going on. The system needs to change for the better of society or this will keep happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Wilkinson-Smith said Korewha’s mental health reports made for sad reading. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

\u2018Reports made for sad reading\u2019<\/p>\n

Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith went into detail around Korewha\u2019s troubled mental health history.<\/p>\n

She cautioned Korewha that some of what she was about to read, he might be hearing for the first time, yet he sat through it without a flicker of emotion, staring straight ahead.<\/p>\n

Justice Wilkinson-Smith first acknowledged the distress the families had experienced since Ware\u2019s death and thanked them for their views.<\/p>\n

Korewha had no history of violence until he was first admitted as an inpatient in a Northland mental health facility in 2021 when he was 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reports made for sad reading,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

By March 2022 he was on medication for schizophrenia and released back into the community, but by June, he was back.<\/p>\n

He absconded twice from the facility, transitioned to a new medication and was released again.<\/p>\n

In March 2023, he was reported as doing well and his mental health community order was ceased.<\/p>\n

In September 2024, his medication was reduced and then ceased completely, but by April 2025 he was put on a new medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe death of Mr Ware then followed on May 9,\u201d Justice Wilkinson-Smith said.<\/p>\n

During that period he was assessed as having an intellectual disorder, but Justice Wilkinson\u2011Smith said that finding was incorrect as it was made after his schizophrenia diagnosis. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has an established history of psychosis which he\u2019s previously been treated by anti-psychotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrevious clinical notes give inconsistent and, at times, contradictory accounts of his poor performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said he did not meet the criteria for intellectual disability.<\/p>\n

Justice Wilkinson-Smith said when Korewha was unwell he would exhibit persecutor delusions, auditory hallucinations, poverty of speech and cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n

She said he also had a number of significant risk factors present at the time of Ware\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Since being in the Mason clinic, Korewha \u201cwas observed responding to unseen stimuli when he was in his room which included laughing and talking to himself\u201d, Justice Wilkinson-Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is unable to engage in future planning or engage in destabilising. He\u2019s unable to engage in mediation, unable to describe how to manage stress. While it\u2019s treatable, the effect is still not clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis current inability to acknowledge the events relating to the killing of Mr Ware, or to describe his experience or his motivation, presents significant challenges to predict or modify his future risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Wilkinson-Smith said it was in the interests of the public and Korewha that he be detained in a secure mental health facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny lesser response would not adequately address the risk he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the order, Korewha can only be discharged with the approval of the Minister of Health.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Korewha, 27, appeared in the High Court at Whang\u0101rei on Tuesday for his final hearing. On May 9,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,12974,20556,2082,63027,19724,42,36566,22259,11156,151901,50280,43,151902,40,38,41,39,151903],"class_list":["post-266757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-change","tag-detention","tag-for","tag-geoffrey","tag-given","tag-headlines","tag-indefinite","tag-jack","tag-killing","tag-korewha","tag-meds","tag-news","tag-stepdad","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}