{"id":582545,"date":"2026-08-28T02:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T02:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/582545\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T02:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T02:24:15","slug":"turangi-murderer-lance-dickinson-stabbed-his-ex-cheri-lee-bell-13-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/582545\/","title":{"rendered":"T\u016brangi murderer Lance Dickinson stabbed his ex, Cheri-Lee Bell, 13 times"},"content":{"rendered":"

At his sentencing in the High Court<\/a> at Rotorua<\/a> yesterday, Justice Pheroze Jagose said Dickinson and his victim met as teenagers at Tongariro College in T\u016brangi<\/a> and were in a relationship for 12 years.<\/p>\n

He killed her early on June 20 last year, after entering her home uninvited, and in the presence of a child and Bell\u2019s teenage sister. <\/p>\n

Dickinson and Bell had two children together. <\/p>\n

In response to escalating family violence from Dickinson during the latter part of their relationship, Bell obtained a protection order against him in December 2023.<\/p>\n

She then ended the relationship in April 2025.<\/p>\n

In defiance of the protection order, Dickinson kept pestering Bell, sending her messages and going to her workplace, her parents\u2019 house and her home in T\u016brangi.<\/p>\n

He accused her of seeing other people and, when asked repeatedly to leave, said to her, \u201cJust tell me the truth\u201d, and \u201cI just want to be a family again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Justice Jagose said Dickinson\u2019s calls, messages and texts to Bell numbered in the thousands, were made at all times of the day and night and were often abusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey continued despite her requests you leave her alone. You threatened to stab and kill Ms Bell.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 30, 2025, Dickinson was released from custody on bail, after being charged with breaching the protection order. <\/p>\n

Over the next three weeks, he repeatedly breached his bail conditions by contacting Bell, going to her home, and defying a night-time curfew requiring him to be at his mother\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

Early on June 16, he drove past Bell\u2019s house and took videos of a car parked in the driveway belonging to a friend she had invited to stay with her.<\/p>\n

He then parked in a neighbouring street, walked back to the house and entered unannounced. <\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Pheroze Jagose said he counted nine aggravating features in the murder of Cheri-Lee Bell. Photo \/ Doug Sherring<\/p>\n

Bell came out of the bedroom and found Dickinson hiding in the kitchen. They argued.<\/p>\n

He held her by the hair and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife in her chest, stomach, back, upper arm, wrist and hands, before making a final slash to her neck which severed her right carotid artery, trachea and oesophagus. <\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s sister, hearing her scream, came out of her bedroom to see Bell holding her neck with blood spurting between her fingers before collapsing to the ground. <\/p>\n

She died at the scene. <\/p>\n

The sister retreated to protect Bell\u2019s 4-year-old child in the bedroom while Davidson ran to his car and drove to Taumarunui.<\/p>\n

He later told police he had gone to Bell\u2019s home to get their daughter.<\/p>\n

He said that, during the argument with Bell, he grabbed a knife but \u201cthen blacked out and did not recall what happened\u201d.<\/p>\n

The knife has not been recovered.<\/p>\n

Dickinson declined to be interviewed by a probation officer for a pre-sentence report, which had to be compiled using other information available about him.<\/p>\n

The report writer assessed that he carried a high risk of reoffending and a high risk of causing harm to others. <\/p>\n

She also said that, in the weeks before the murder, Davidson made internet searches for the phrases \u201chow to track phone\u201d, \u201clawyer Taup\u014d\u201d and \u201chow long jail for murder\u201d.<\/p>\n

This indicated the murder was \u201ccalculated, premeditated and planned\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Brutal and persisting impact\u2019<\/p>\n

Justice Jagose said he had read multiple victim impact statements from Bell\u2019s parents, brother, sister and a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey painfully illustrate how your terrible actions removed a much-loved person from their own and her children\u2019s lives, with brutal and persisting impact on all of them and radiating out into the wider community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome forgive you; some do not.\u201d<\/p>\n

He counted at least nine aggravating features in Dickinson\u2019s attack on Bell, meeting the criteria for extended jail time without parole beyond the minimum of 10 years for a life sentence for murder.<\/p>\n

These were his unlawful entry into the house, the actual violence, the use of a weapon, the attack to the neck, cruelty and brutality, offending while on bail, the family violence context, the breach of the protection order, the fear and distress caused, and the loss of life.<\/p>\n

He imposed the non-parole period of 17 years and, in addition to the life sentence for murder, a concurrent jail term of six years and nine months for multiple breaches of the protection order.<\/p>\n

Davidson was also given a first warning under the three-strikes law, which would limit his parole options should he offend again.<\/p>\n

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At his sentencing in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday, Justice Pheroze Jagose said Dickinson and his victim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19838,1763,2033,286853,11557,48722,8912,29223,545,2109,293,17470,4275,61390,111,43,139,69,6289,544,72230,1961,14005,37233,13118,1354],"class_list":["post-582545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-19838","tag-article","tag-bell","tag-cherilee","tag-describes","tag-dickinson","tag-distressing","tag-ex","tag-extreme","tag-family","tag-his","tag-lance","tag-murder","tag-murderer","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-readers","tag-some","tag-stabbed","tag-this","tag-times","tag-trangi","tag-violence","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582545","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=582545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}