![\"Lyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lyn-fleming-file-composite-image-ALP4E7KJV5FZNBMW3KNNPMIXDE.png\")
<\/p>\nA jury has found Hayden Tasker guilty of murdering senior policewoman Lyn Fleming and intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to senior sergeant Adam Ramsay.<\/p>\n
Tasker drove his car into the pair on foot patrol in Nelson in the early hours of New Year’s Day last year. He was also formally convicted today on three additional charges of dangerous driving and dangerous driving causing injury. <\/p>\n
He was due to be sentenced on July 24. <\/p>\n
The jury deliberated for about three and a half hours. <\/p>\n
The judge called for a pre-sentence report and victim impact statements to be prepared. <\/p>\n
He also thanked the jury, describing the trial as “at times difficult” and “harrowing”.<\/p>\n
A night of tragedy<\/p>\n
It should have been like any other New Year\u2019s Eve for police on the central Nelson beat, making sure revellers were safe. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lyn Fleming (file composite image). (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
But for two officers, out patrolling central Nelson on the morning of January 1 last year, the night didn\u2019t end like any other. <\/p>\n
Not long after 2am, senior sergeants Fleming and Ramsay were chatting to two other officers seated in a red police car in Buxton Square – \u201chaving some banter\u201d – as one of them put it during the trial. <\/p>\n
Another officer on duty in the square had been watching them, thinking how happy they looked \u2013 a moment she was going to relay<\/a> to them later. <\/p>\n Then suddenly, a white Honda Odyssey \u2013 with Tasker at the wheel \u2013 came flying through the carpark, diagonally.<\/p>\n Lyn Fleming (file composite image). (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n Fleming and Ramsay only had time to \u201cget out half a yell and not even take sort of half a step\u201d, one of the officers in the red car recalled, before they were thrown into the air. <\/p>\n Many witnesses in court described seeing them flying, some using the word \u201csomersaulting\u201d, others saying \u201crag dolling\u201d. <\/p>\n The car sped off, before looping back again and ramming into a police car that had been sitting parked in the square. <\/p>\n Chaos ensued. <\/p>\n An officer drove his car into the back of the offending vehicle, trying to trap it, as members of the public also sprang into action.<\/p>\n Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n One man boldly reached into the driver\u2019s car to turn off the engine and try to grab his keys. In his evidence, Samuel Hodges said he felt it was \u201ca fight or flight situation\u201d, fearing the vehicle could do even more damage if it got out onto the street. <\/p>\n Colleagues who raced to Senior Sergeant Fleming’s aid didn’t realise it was her at first and detailed her poor state in court. <\/p>\n Some immediately knew she was dead.<\/p>\n The jury heard four people took turns at giving CPR compressions, including Constable Molly Inman. <\/p>\n \u201cAt one point, I was doing compressions, she tried to take a breath but there was a lot of blood in her throat,\u201d she told the jury. <\/p>\n Senior Sergeant Ramsay, who suffered critical injuries and is still recovering from the incident, also gave evidence<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI just remember hearing a loud engine noise, and I remember thinking, that’s loud. This is the car park. Someone’s going quite fast and I remember looking and just seeing a set of headlights at that point I just remember thinking f*** and then that’s the last thing I can remember,\u201d the court heard. <\/p>\n An archival photo taken of Lyn Fleming. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n His colleague, Constable Jonathan Fris, was one of the officers Fleming and Ramsay were talking t<\/a>o just before they were hit. <\/p>\n “There was a flash of white as the car went past my window and just hit a massive bang and then sort of I looked up I could see just their bodies and police uniform tumbling through the air,\u201d he said in his evidence. <\/p>\n ‘I’m sorry to the family’<\/p>\n Tasker\u2019s defence was he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder, in relation to Fleming’s death.<\/p>\n He argued he was drunk and depressed, and only intended to kill himself<\/a> that night. <\/p>\n The now 33-year-old was three times over<\/a> the legal alcohol limit when he was arrested. <\/p>\n In his formal police interview, played to the court, he said: \u201cWas just gonna like ram into some cops and then they would start chasing me but then I would get away kind of like on a movie,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cMy intention was that they would get away and then they would start chasing me,\u201d he reiterated. <\/p>\n The jury heard details of his life circumstances, including the loss of his dad at the age of 16, how he was struggling following a relationship split and that he was unemployed and sleeping in his car at the time of the attack.<\/p>\n After being informed during the interview of the charges he would face \u2013 including one of murder – he was seen and heard crying, asking to call his family. <\/p>\n Jury shown police interview with Hayden Tasker shortly after he drove at a police patrol, killing one officer and injuring others. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n The video showed him with his head in his hands, looking down at the floor, at multiple occasions. <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a lot for me to take in,\u201d he relayed, emotively, to the detective. <\/p>\n \u201cI didn’t realise one of your officers died… it really has affected me.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cAll I can say is that I’m sorry to the family.\u201d <\/p>\n He said no one should ever be killed on the job, admitting he had \u201cpunished\u201d a family \u201cin the worst possible way\u201d. <\/p>\n His lawyer Marcus Zintl told the jury: \u201cThe consequences of Mr Tasker’s dangerous driving… were despicable, deplorable and dreadful. But that does not make him guilty of murder.\u201d <\/p>\n But the Crown boiled its case<\/a> down to “man angry with police<\/a> kills police officer\u201d. <\/p>\n Prosecutor Jackson Webber said: \u201cThis was no accident, no mistake, no manslaughter. The Crown submits to you, members of the jury, that it was obvious, this was murder.\u201d <\/p>\n “Senior Sergeant Fleming died because the defendant Hayden Tasker, motivated by anger towards the police, made the decision to use his vehicle as a weapon and intentionally drive it into her,” he summarised.<\/p>\n The jury agreed with that version of events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A jury has found Hayden Tasker guilty of murdering senior policewoman Lyn Fleming and intentionally causing grievous bodily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[158,67,42,91,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-432944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-nelson","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432944","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=432944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lyn-fleming-file-composite-image-6DX3IS7CMNH5TMMIVHSWPC2SEE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Senior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/nelson-police-officer-who-survived-being-mown-down-testifies-U24VRL7T5JCWBEXAHAI6QDPZ4M.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/an-archival-photo-taken-of-lyn-fleming-M7YQLQLMBFEYVAS4E5N7NR2COA.png\")
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