{"id":495759,"date":"2026-06-26T00:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495759\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T00:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:58:10","slug":"anaru-ihaka-morunga-given-concurrent-jail-term-for-assault-before-kaipara-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495759\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaru Ihaka Morunga given concurrent jail term for assault before Kaipara murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge Tomlinson questioned the point of the dispute, given the summary was not likely to become an issue until at least 2041, when Morunga is first eligible for parole on the murder charge<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Referring to media in court, Creamer told the judge, \u201cI think the delicacy might be in how it might be reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson allowed an adjournment, and when the case was ready to be recalled 90 minutes later, Creamer confirmed Morunga disputed two claims – that he went through the victim\u2019s dirty laundry, questioning why it contained so much underwear and that he accused her of sleeping with other men because of it. <\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson<\/a> said the disputes would not affect the sentence but were formally recorded to preserve Morunga\u2019s position should they ever become an issue, such as for propensity, in future. <\/p>\n

The court heard a protection order had been in place since November 2023 but related to a past partner. On July 10, 2024, Morunga phoned the woman without approval then went to her home about 10pm. <\/p>\n

She was in bed with her young child, with whom Morunga insisted on playing video games. The woman asked him to leave. <\/p>\n

She went to the bathroom, and when she came out, Morunga punched her in the side of the face in front of the child, who began crying. The blow left her dizzy, and she fell into a bedside table, hitting her elbow. Her jaw and elbow were swollen and bruised for the next few days. <\/p>\n

The summary of facts records claims that Morunga went through her washing and made accusations about her clothing \u2013 the aspects he disputes.<\/p>\n

Morunga returned the following morning, entering the house uninvited and apologising before leaving. He later made threatening and abusive phone calls to her, for which he was charged representatively. <\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson described both the assault and the protection order breaches as serious, stressing that the court needed to respond firmly. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the court does not mark breaches sternly, they lose their impact,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The judge noted Morunga had previous relevant convictions for breaching release conditions and for breaching a protection order in 2022, with multiple other incidents of non-compliance.<\/p>\n

\"AnaruAnaru Morunga appeared before Judge Gene Tomlinson in Whang\u0101rei District Court.<\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson said each of the breaches and the assault in this case were \u201cpretty serious\u201d. <\/p>\n

He set a starting point of four months\u2019 imprisonment for the assault but noted that had Morunga not already been in jail, it might not have resulted in a prison term. <\/p>\n

However, coupled with that and with the breaches for which there needed to be a significant uplift \u2013 eight months \u2013 a starting point of 12 months\u2019 imprisonment was appropriate, the judge said. <\/p>\n

He applied two months\u2019 discount for guilty pleas and a further month reduction for \u201csignificant\u201d causal background factors \u2013 Morunga\u2019s poor upbringing and exposure as a young person to a range of adverse circumstances, which had led to his having contact with mental health services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s informative to me of your decision-making and this offending,\u201d Judge Tomlinson said. <\/p>\n

Morunga\u2019s lack of control and structure in his life had led to him trying to create control by dominating others, using violence, the judge said. <\/p>\n

Sarah Curtis<\/a> is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, most of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judge Tomlinson questioned the point of the dispute, given the summary was not likely to become an issue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[45451,9526,17704,1558,9218,248158,6129,59502,2082,14724,19724,248157,29819,1334,159963,23157,11156,424,52475,4275,15360,111,139,1067,69,159964,5161,74908,213,1335,4518],"class_list":["post-495759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-anaru","tag-another","tag-assault","tag-been","tag-before","tag-concurrent","tag-crimes","tag-expartner","tag-for","tag-further","tag-given","tag-ihaka","tag-involving","tag-jail","tag-jasmaine","tag-kaipara","tag-killing","tag-life","tag-morunga","tag-murder","tag-murdering","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-reihana","tag-sentenced","tag-serving","tag-sports","tag-term","tag-weeks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495759","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=495759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}