Sina Solomona had everything to live for
We were saddened to hear of the murder of young Ashburton mother Sina Solomona.
Ms Solomona, age 22, was found in a pool of blood at her home in the quiet town early last Saturday morning. Our thoughts and condolences are extended to her friends and family for their loss.
Police are considering a sexual element to the attack but there was no evidence of rape.
There was also no evidence of a fight or scuffle, and there was no sign of any defensive wounds to Solomona’s hands and arms.
Her stepbrother found her near death in a pool of blood about 2.40am. He ran for help, but she could not be revived.
A weapon was found close to her body, but Rae is refusing to say what it was, or if it was used in the attack.
Police are considering a sexual element to the attack but there was no evidence of rape.
There was also no evidence of a fight or scuffle, and there was no sign of any defensive wounds to Solomona’s hands and arms.
Her stepbrother found her near death in a pool of blood about 2.40am. He ran for help, but she could not be revived.
A weapon was found close to her body… more here
Today police announced they had arrested a youth who has been charged with murder. They have released neither the age or the gender of the offender.
Many people emigrate to New Zealand believing it to be a safe place to raise children, this murder demonstrates that New Zealand is not as safe as people believe it to be. It is evident that New Zealand has exactly the same problems as any other place in the world, neither its remoteness nor its low population provides any measure of protection.
This is the latest of multiple serious crimes which have been committed by youths in New Zealand and unfortunately is it unlikely to be the last.
NZ’s out of control teens
Today 13 year old Jordan Nelson was jailed for 18 years for the murder of Rosemaree Kurth, he shot her in the back of the head at a home in Okoki North Taranaki.
The number of rapes and violent attacks perpetrated by teens in New Zealand is reaching worrying proportions.
In January Dr Kim McGregor, Executive Director of Rape Prevention Education wrote an open letter to John Key. He called for a Task-force on Action on Sexual Violence to be set-up in New Zealand and cited some horrendous child abuse figures. Read the task force’s report and recommendations here.
Far from being a great place to raise kids, the high level of sexual violence in New Zealand impacts 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 8 boys under the age of 16 years. For more about the significant problems of raising children in New Zealand please see our Education and Childrens Issues facts page.
Earlier this year a 16 year old raped and savagely mutilated a 5 year old Belgian girl at a Turangi campsite, the youth had been the subject of sexual violence himself as he was growing up.
The two males charged with the death of reporter Phillip Cottrell were aged 17 and 19, and the youth who battered Karen Aim to death was only 14.
Scottish tourist Karen Aim murdered in Taupo by a 14 year old
Two youths aged 14 and 15 Rotorua Youth Court were charged with the assault of elderly Polish man, Roman Skorek, whose body was found in Kuirau Park. A 20 year old has been charged with murder. Simon Meka Herewini, 20, William Karauna Edwards, 15, and Leslie McKay Glen, 14, have all pleaded not guilty to murder and will stand trial in July 2013.
Youth crime is becoming increasingly savage in New Zealand. As the officers working on the Turangi rape case said: “its time for NZ society to take a good look at itself.”
Its also time for an in-depth review of the criminal justice system for youth offenders. Something patently isn’t working.
For NZ youth offending stories click here
For NZ violence against women stories click here
You may also be interested in Herne Bay couple flee violent home invasion
E2NZ.org 
This site has made the point many times before. New Zealand is the worst of both worlds. When you move to New Zealand, you are not leaving the problems of modern society behind you. You are not moving to some nostalgic golden faraway place, where crime and outrageously bad behavior is “not as bad” as in London, NY or some developed city. New Zealand is a desperate, tiny, remote, poor country. It has imported all the problems of London or NY, on a smaller scale, but the generalized effect on their society has been such that you are more likely to come into contact with it, especially fraud, larceny, brawling, and drug and alcohol abuse, . Fellow countrymen and friends in other nations who were not expats commented, “you mean it was like moving to Kentucky to escape Harlem” or “like moving to rural Wales to escape Hackney” but I knew people from so-called redneck areas in both those countries who had moved to New Zealand and said it was the “worst of both worlds”. All the problems of backwater areas with imported “city issues”.
Hi there, I’m Tonya, I’m Leslie McKay Glens older sister. My brother is innocent until proven guilty. There was no blood found on his shoes or clothes so he didn’t do anything. If you knew what happened to our dad you would know that Leslie wouldn’t hurt anyone the way that guy was. INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!!!!
What happened to your Dad?
A new post has been made about some of the recent shootings in New Zealand, read Man Dead From Gunshot Wound to Chest, Violent Gun Crime Continues in NZ
Another series of serious assaults perpetrated by youths has taken place over Christmas, this time against police in Dargaville and Huntly. Please see NZ Police Injured in Christmas Day Riot, Another Violent Christmas for Middle Earth for details. All links open in a new window.
Really “Steven” do you have a short memory?
Do you think David Gray would have turned around if he’d come across a school whilst out on his rampage? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramoana_massacre
and earlier today a 16 year old youth was arrested for shooting at passing cars in Hamilton http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855817.
Think on this.
New Zealand has 11 times as many guns per capita as Britain and 60 percent more than Australia where the police are armed. There are an estimated 230,000 licensed firearm owners using approximately 1.1 million firearms, enough for 1 in 4 of the population.
There are no figures for the number of weapons illegally owned by unlicensed people. During a call to one domestic incident in a house in Otahuhu, South Auckland police came across an arms cache of about 45 high powered shot guns and rifles and ammunition. Police confiscated 11 guns from a farmer after a fire on his property caused a major power outage in the North Island.
“Gun-control advocate Philip Alpers estimated only 6 per cent of firearms needed to be registered with police in New Zealand. Alpers, an adjunct associate professor at Sydney University, said these included handguns and military-style or semi-automatic weapons. “[The police] have no way of even counting the legitimate guns, they don’t have a clue. “By definition, we can’t accurately estimate the number of illegal firearms out there. It’s like estimating the number of ounces of P on the market.”
For more read posts tagged gun politics in New Zealand
Firearms in New Zealand fall into one of four categories:
Pistols are firearms shorter than 762 mm (30 in).
Restricted Weapons include machine guns, selective-fire assault rifles, grenades and rocket launchers. This category also includes some non-firearm weapons such as pepper spray.
Military-Style Semi-Automatics (MSSAs) include semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have one or more of the following components:
A folding or telescopic butt
A bayonet lug
A free-standing “military-style” pistol grip
A flash suppressor
A magazine that holds (or looks like it could hold) more than 15 rounds of .22 rimfire ammunition or 7 rounds of any other calibre.
A Category firearms are those that do not fall into any other categories.
Registration is not required for “A Category” firearms, but firearms in any other category require both registration and a “permit to procure” before they are transferred.
Except under supervision of a licence holder, owning or using firearms requires a firearms licence from the police. The licence is normally issued, under the conditions that the applicant has secure storage for firearms, attends a safety lecture and passes a written test. The police will also interview the applicant and two references (one must be a close relative and the other not related) to determine whether the applicant is “fit and proper” to have a firearm. The applicants residence is also visited to check that they have appropriate storage for firearms and ammunition. Having criminal associations or a history of domestic violence almost always lead to a licence being declined.
A standard firearms licence allows the use of “A Category” firearms. To possess firearms of another category they are required to get an endorsement to their licence. There are different endorsements for different classes of firearm but they all require a higher level of storage security, stricter vetting requirements and the applicant must have a ‘special reason’ for wanting the endorsement.”
It is nothing to do with relative safety, rather to demonstrate that New Zealand does have its own problem with guns and gun crimes which includes mass shootings or massacres.
As a point of order, you were wrong when you said a Sandy Hook type shooting could not occur in New Zealand. it already has what may’ve been one of the world’s first school massacres with an automatic weapon. Since then there have been many cases of NZ schools being placed into lockdown because an armed person has entered the school grounds. Schools have notoriously poor security in New Zealand, the next massacre is just waiting to happen.
Gun controls are lax in New Zealand and there have been a number of incidents of child on child shootings, children shooting adults and hunters killing each other and innocent bystanders, as well as children getting caught in the cross fire of the occasional nutter or gang feud
and other drive by shootings at homes in which children are living and cases of farmers getting shot on their own properties. Then there’s the members of the public that are accidentally shot and killed by armed police
New Zealand’s first school massacre, reproduced from the Te Puke Times 23 October 1923.
In recent years some high profile NZ gun massacres have included the Raurimu Rampage and the Bain Family killings.
Pay no mind to posters like this. Kiwis excel at refusing to see logic, or making illogical refutations or statements. They call any point-by-point or careful justifications “long-winded” only because they are too stupid to understand them. Or too lazy to read them. Saw so much of this whilst there.You could not have any intelligent discourse with these morons. Glad to be back in the enlightened world.