Ngatai “Mellory” Manning (Unsolved Murder)

The evening of December 18th 2008 was Mellory “Mel” Manning’s  first shift on the streets of Christchurch’s red light district for months. The 27 year old had turned to sex work at a young age to fund a destructive drug habit. Recently a family tragedy had led Mel to take steps to change her life. Tonight was a one off, she  was off the drugs but wanted extra money to buy Christmas presents. At 9.43pm Mel sent her last text message. Two minutes later her phone was out of service. The  events that followed are now permanently etched into the annals of New Zealand criminal and legal history.

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Ngatai “Mellory” Manning

Ngatai Manning left her home in Christchurch, New Zealand, at around 9.15pm to go to work. It was a week before Christmas 2008 and it was the diminutive 27 year old's first shift for some time. Ngatai, who went by the name “Mel” (short for Mellory), had been a sex worker in central Christchurch since the age of just 15. Six months earlier something had happened which had profoundly impacted Mel and the direction of her life. Mel’s older sister Jasmine had died by suicide at the age of just 29 while in a witness protection program in Auckland. The lives of the sisters had followed a similar trajectory, both had survived a tough childhood, including sexual abuse, before going on to suffer drug addiction. The sisters had lost contact prior to Jasmine’s death, but Mel did not want to end up like Jasmine and wanted to put a stop to her own downward spiral. She wanted a different and better life for herself. 

Mel moved back home with her mother, determined to quit sex work and leave the streets behind. Mel signed up to a drug rehabilitation program and was put on Methadone in order to aid the process of withdrawing from heroin, the drug that had ravaged her life for so long. Mel even enquired about beginning art classes at a local polytechnic college and began to entertain the idea of starting a family. Things looked promising for her future. 

Mel was a generous person and as the festive season approached she wanted to be able to buy Christmas presents for her family and friends. Since stopping sex work she had found herself unemployed and struggling to secure a job. Needing extra money for gifts, Mel decided to go out on the streets one final time. 

On the 18th December 2008 Mel made her way from her home in Riccarton just to the west of the city centre, down Blenheim Road towards town. At 9.17pm an acquaintance pulled over and gave her a lift to the corner of Peterborough and Manchester Street. This was the spot she had always worked in the past and it was near a large oak tree. It was renowned as a place where sex workers waited for clients. The location is a little north of downtown Christchurch, about four blocks away from Cathedral Square. It was normal practice for clients to pick up the women in their cars and then drive to various places in the vicinity. The women would then get dropped back to Manchester Street. 

Mel, who stood at 5ft 4, 167 cm, and weighed just 99 lbs, 45kg, always took pride in her appearance and with her curly auburn hair she stood out among the other workers on the street corner as she waited for her first client of the night. She wore a pink short skirt, a blue bikini top with white polka dots, a thin grey sweater and black hooded cardigan. She had on black ankle boots. She had changed into these during her lift into town. Her lighter, high heeled shoes she kept in the handbag that she had slung over her shoulder. 

Mel’s first client picked her up at 9.30pm and she directed him to the car park of the Caledonian Hotel in St Albans, a five minute drive away. The client then drove Mel back to Manchester Street at 9.55pm. On her return Mel found another sex worker in her spot so told her to move on.

Her second client of the evening came by shortly after. This time Mel told the man to drive to Chester Street East car park. The client returned Mel to her usual spot at 10.20pm. Mel then visited a Salvation Army van to collect some condoms. At 10.35pm another sex worker noticed Mel at her usual spot. This sex worker left and returned ten minutes later to find Mel was no longer there.

Mobile phone data later showed that one of the clients that Mel had seen earlier in the night sent her a text at 10.41pm saying he would see her again sometime. Mel replied at 10.43pm and everything appeared fine. The mobile phone tracking suggested that Mel was travelling in a car at this time and was a few blocks away from her spot on Manchester Street near the top of Victoria Street and Bealey Avenue. According to a June 2022 article by Mike White on New Zealand news site Stuff, 52 seconds later the client sent another text to Mel but by then her phone was out of service. 

That night a former drug dealer who had known Mel since 2006 was in his house on Galbraith Avenue, Avonside. This is about a 7 minute drive from where the mobile phone data pinpointed Mel’s last text. The weather was very warm so the windows of the house were all open to let a breeze through the property. Suddenly the sound of a woman's scream permeated the silence. The New Zealand Herald in 2014 wrote that the ear witness said the scream lasted for three seconds and described it as blood curdling. He thought it sounded like someone was being attacked. Nevertheless, the man did not contact the police, as hearing that kind of thing was not unusual for the neighbourhood.

Persons Unknown is a true crime podcast dedicated to unsolved murders and missing persons cases from all over the world.

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Ngatai Lynette  Manning was born in Nelson, a city on the north coast of New Zealand’s South Island on Waitangi Day 1981. Waitangi Day is on the 6th of February and commemorates the signing of New Zealand’s founding document in 1840. Her parents were Sharon and Pierre, though the couple separated when Ngatai was small and she had little contact with her father. Ngatai had a sister, Jasmine who was two years older and a younger brother Robin, born in 1983.  After the separation Sharon and the children moved to the town of Southbridge in the  Canterbury plains, 45 km south west of Christchurch. Ngatai and her siblings attended Southbridge Primary and later Ellesmere College. 

For a period the children had a stepfather who was abusive (they subsequently had another step father who was not). Ngatai’s brother Robin Manning has since spoken about how tough things were for them all as children. Surviving in that environment brought the siblings together and the three were close. 

As Ngatai grew up she was viewed as having a strong character and prone to  “playing up”. She was often sent over the summer period to her grandparents’ home almost five hours away in Granity. At age 14 Ngatai left school and for a short period found herself in the care system. It was at this time that the teenager began to experiment with drugs and developed a dependency that would plague her short life. At age 15 Ngatai had turned to sex work to fund her habit. By her older teen years she had moved to Christchurch and was gripped by addiction to hardcore drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine and morphine. 

Around this time Ngatai changed her name to Mellory or Mel for short. I will now refer to her by that name. Mel began to get in trouble with the police and her criminality became more serious. In 1999 during the process of a robbery Mel stabbed a shop assistant with a syringe filled with blood. As a consequence she was given an 18 month prison sentence.

Life in her twenties continued to become more chaotic and dangerous for Mel. She lived in various areas of Christchurch including Addington, Phillipstown and Cashmere, often sharing houses with other drug users. During this time Mel had a number of relationships with very abusive partners, one of whom beat her so badly she ended up in hospital. 

By age 27 things were beginning to look up for Mel. She had a new boyfriend, Kent Gorrie, who also acted as her minder on the streets. While he was described in contemporary media reports as a career criminal, he was not abusive to Mel. In articles I've read it is clear Gorrie genuinely loved and cared for her. 

Mel is described as a loyal friend and good listener. Her partner Kent Gorrie’s mother spoke very highly of Mel, saying she was intelligent and respectful. Her brother Robin Manning calls Mel smart. The news website Stuff New Zealand in September 2021 said Mel was feisty and streetwise as well as kind and sweet. Mel was creative and artistic. As a youth she was a gifted ballet dancer and singer. Unfortunately the black dog on her shoulder was always her crippling drug dependency. It was the crutch to which she had turned to cope  with the abuse she had experienced as a child.

As I have mentioned, the death of her sister in the middle of 2008 profoundly affected Mel and within three months of this tragic event Mel had made steps to change her life. She turned her back on heroin and began making enquiries about going to art school. Gorrie and Mel even talked about starting a family. All these hopes and dreams were destroyed a week before Christmas 2008. 

At 6.50am on the morning of December 19th a woman was running on Dallington Terrace just east of Christchurch city centre along the side of the river Avon. As she jogged along she caught a glimpse of what she thought was a pair of legs sticking out from the reeds at the side of the river. She called a passing kayaker, who went closer to investigate. It was the half naked body of a young woman. 

A short time later fingerprints positively identified the body as Mellory Manning. Mel’s partner Kent Gorrie was informed. He was shocked as he didnt even know Mel was missing. He was unaware that she had been out working the previous night. Mel’s brother Robin Manning, read about the finding of a woman's body, believed to be a sex worker, in the local newspaper later that day. It crossed his mind at the time that it could be his sister but he dismissed the idea. He believed his sister was too tough to be killed in this way. Besides, he had seen his sister the previous morning on Riccarton Road near where she lived. It had been the first time he had seen her in six weeks but she seemed fine. How could she possibly be dead? Robin was devastated when he finally learnt the truth from the police. Both his siblings had passed in horrendous circumstances just months apart. 

The violence displayed in Mel's murder was shocking even to hardened detectives. Some details of the injuries have never been fully disclosed. An autopsy was carried out that determined that Mel had been dead before she was put in the river. Mel had been strangled to the point of unconsciousness and then beaten, including several blows to her head. Marks on her legs suggested she had been hit with a piece of reinforced steel. When she lay dying she was stabbed three times in the chest. The exit wounds on the back were small which suggested that Mel had been lying on a hard surface. When she was found her left arm was raised and it bore clear signs of defensive wounds.

According to an article in The New Zealand Herald from February 12th 2014, a toxicology report showed trace amounts of cannabis, morphine, diazepam and possibly temazepam as well as higher levels of methadone. There was no evidence of alcohol, heroin or methamphetamine - the latter two being the drugs that had caused Mel the most serious problems over the last decade or so.

Police released the information that they believed that at least two weapons had been used in the attack and it was evident more than one person had been involved in the murder. Mel had also been raped, though his fact was not made public until a few years later. As already stated Mel was found half naked, she was still wearing clothes on her upper body. The body had numerous small scratches which it was determined were caused from contact with long grass or prickly vegetation and plants.  Forensics detected the presence of 2 cm long seeds stuck to Mel's sweater, cardigan and skirt. They were believed to have come from weed-like grass. These would later prove highly significant. 

Police deduced the body had been dumped into the river just before 11:00 in the evening. Two witnesses on Galbraith Avenue had heard a loud splash around this time and even more ominously, Mel's watch had stopped at 10.59pm. Subsequent experiments showed that the brand and model of watch Mel had been wearing failed to work as soon as it was submerged in water. What investigators could not fathom was the exact location where this had happened or the crime scene where the murder took place. They also did not know the motive for the killing. Robbery was quickly ruled out, as Mel had been found with her handbag still over her shoulder. 

Over the first couple of days bad weather and heavy rain hampered the search for clues but thirty officers scoured the area where the body had been found. One small Alltrade pocket knife was found close to the body and a larger blade was fished out of the river 150 m away. The smaller blade was not thought to have been used in the attack but police were still keen to trace the owner. Forensic tests found Mel’s DNA under the handle of the larger blade, though this could have got there from Mel’s blood dispersing in the river. A number of residences in the vicinity were searched, with one home close to where the body was found said to be of particular interest to police.

Detective Inspector Greg Williams was in charge of the investigation which was codenamed Operation Dallington. There is often criticism levelled at law enforcement when dealing with the murder of a woman who was a sex worker. Across the globe it has often been true that similar cases are not given high priority by investigators. In this instance DI Williams and his team seemed genuinely committed to seeing the crime solved and Mel’s case treated with respect. Investigators got to work straight away developing a scenario of what had happened that night.

After viewing CCTV footage from Manchester Street, police said they were looking for two people to assist them in their inquiries. One was an Indian man who they thought was one of Mel's clients, and the other a driver of a blue four wheel drive vehicle. They also said they were looking for a dark coloured Ford Focus that may have been involved in the murder. Another report mentions a Ford Falcon. It was reported that people on Dallington Terrace at 11.10pm on the night in question spoke of seeing a white saloon car parked at an angle on a grass verge between the road and the river. 

It was speculated that the person responsible was likely someone who regularly used sex workers in the city. In the early stages of the investigation, focus was very much on tracing all of Mel’s clients. There were about 40 names in her notebook that all had to be checked out. It was an obvious place to start. By December 22nd both clients Mel had seen on the evening in question came forward to police and offered useful information regarding the timeline of events. They were eventually cleared of any involvement in the murder. 

Car parks used by Mel and other sex workers were visited and used condoms were collected for DNA analysis. At the time police were tight lipped about the forensic evidence they had procured from the crime scene, and it would be another two years before they went public with this information.

As would be expected since he had a criminal record, Mel’s partner was looked at, but nothing sinister was uncovered. Two former partners were also investigated. One was the man who had put Mel in the hospital and the other the leader of the neo-nazi gang, Fourth Reich. The latter, 41 year old Malcom Chaston, was later convicted of the 2010 rape and murder of Vanessa Pickering. Mel was friends with Vanessa. Ultimately, neither became a focus for the police. 

The night Mel had died it had been very busy in the centre of Christchurch with many pedestrians and vehicles travelling along Manchester Street. Police discovered that the area had been swarming with members of the Aotearoa Mongrel mob. Aotearoa is the contemporary  Maori name for New Zealand.

The Mongrel mob is an organised street and prison gang which was formed in the early 1960s. It is made up 19.45 predominantly of men from Maori heritage, although there are members with polynesian and European backgrounds. They are involved in many types of criminality such as drug trafficking and money laundering. The gang insignia is a British bulldog wearing a German military helmet which is tattooed on the face of members. Men who wish to join the mob are called a “prospect” and often have to engage in various illegal activities to prove their loyalty and gain their “patch” or full membership. 

In the months before Mel was murdered the Mongrel Mob had moved into the area in force and had made it their goal to extend control over the local sex work industry. Investigators discovered that on the evening of December 18th, a 21 year old Mob prospect, Mauha Huataki Fawcett, who had the mobs insignia prominently tattooed on his cheek, was on Manchester Stree t20.42  tasked with the job of collecting a “sex tax” from the sex workers. For every client, sex workers were expected to hand over $20 to the mob in return for their protection whilst on the streets. Fawcett had been doing this job since he was released from prison in November 2008.

On December 27th investigators were made aware of rumours that the young prospect Mauha Fawcett may have been involved in Mel’s murder. A couple of days later their interest in Fawcett, who went by his nickname “Muck Dog”, was piqued when they heard that he had left town with a friend. As it turned out the pair were not gone for very long as Fawcett crashed his red Toyota car, but it was enough for the police to begin to eye him with suspicion. 

Fawcett was originally from New Windsor in Auckland. He had been brought up in a gang environment and had started taking cannabis at age 8 and methamphetamine at 14. He had never held a regular job.

New Years Eve witnessed police obtain a search warrant for Fawcett’s home and his mobile phone data. Nothing incriminating was discovered and nothing seemed to connect him to Mel. Even so, on January 2nd 2009 detectives from Christchurch arrested Fawcett on an unrelated charge in the city of Nelson. They interviewed him at a police station and asked him about Mel’s murder. Fawcett denied having anything to do with it. 

Other leads were pursued at this time. Witness statements and CCTV footage placed several people within metres of where the body was found on Dallington Terrace. They included the following: a man in a singlet with brown curly hair, two men standing next to a parked four wheel drive and the driver of a white saloon car. Still, the theory that the Mongrel mob may have been involved in Mel's death continued to develop amongst investigators.

One location in which Detective Inspector Greg Williams was particularly interested was a disused warehouse situated at 25 Galbraith Avenue, Avonside, just 750 m from where Mel's body was found and 3km from where she was last seen. If you remember this is near where the former drug dealer heard a loud scream. The property stood on a 1.5 acre lot of wasteland and was used as a pad by the Mongrel Mob. The gang had moved in during the Autumn of 2008 and continued using it until February or March 2009. Investigators were able to confirm that members of the gang were present at the site on the night Mel was killed. Police suspected that this was where Mel had been killed and her body had been taken from there and thrown into the river which lay 365m away.

The warehouse and surrounding wasteland had been searched four days after the murder as a matter of routine. Police returned in February 2009 for an official search. Investigators wanted to find someone who would talk to them about the gang but there was a culture of silence as people in the community feared reprisals. Di Greg Williams decided to send detectives to interview Fawcett again. He was currently in Waikeria prison on an unrelated charge and seemed the obvious person to approach. Police didn't suspect him of being the ringleader of the attack but they thought he knew more than he was letting on.

In March 2009 two detectives went to speak with Fawcett at the prison. One of them wore a listening device on their person so the conversation was recorded. When the detectives arrived Fawcett refused to meet with them. In the aforementioned Stuff New Zealand article from June 2022 it is said that in the recordings it is clearly stated by one of the detectives that they should lie in order to convince Fawcett to talk with them. In order to persuade him, the officers, whose names are suppressed, told Fawcett that the local Mongrel Mob Boss was looking to blame him for Mel’s murder. They also intimated that Fawcett’s life was in danger as the Mongrel Mob thought he was cooperating with the police and grassing on other members. 

Police later denied that they fabricated this information and said the threat was real. Senior writer at Stuff New Zealand, Mike White, said the information about Fawcett being the scapegoat for the murder had come from a second hand source in one police interview. 

The detectives left the interview telling Fawcett not to mention their conversation with anyone, including his lawyer. 

Three months later at the end of July 2009 detectives returned and spent two days speaking with Fawcett. They told him that he should trust them.  They said if he told them what he knew they could provide him with a new start in life and mentioned the prospect of a reward. Fawcett finally cracked and began providing the detectives with information. He said he knew about the murder and witnessed Mel being picked up on Manchester Street. He also admitted to helping wipe down the car in which she was driven to Galbraith Avenue. Again, officers told Fawcett not to tell anyone about what he was telling them, including his lawyer.

Seeing that their persistence was paying off the detectives returned a day later to quiz Fawcett again. At this interview they mentioned the possibility of immunity from prosecution if he went on the record. Their superior could make sure he was protected. However, as Fawcett began to speak, his version of events had now changed. He now denied any prior knowledge of the murder, though he did still admit helping to wipe down the car afterwards. The detectives left Fawcett, advising him not to talk to his lawyer. 

In August 2009 the detective’s superior, DI Tom Fitzgerald, came to talk with Fawcett himself. He started by reading Fawcett his rights, after which a lengthy and sometimes confusing account of the night of December 18th poured out of Fawcett’s mouth. He now claimed he had been there when Mel had been murdered and was asked by other gang members to join in with the attack. He was given a metal pole and told to strike the defenceless Mel. Fawcett admitted that he closed his eyes and did what he was asked. He agreed to go along with the murder in return for obtaining his gang patch. This was a huge turning point in the investigation and effectively sealed the fate of Fawcett. Over the next 2 and a half years police looked to obtain evidence in order to bring charges against him.

Dallas Mildenhall worked as a palynologist for a geosciences consulting firm in Wellington. A Palynologist is someone who studies fossilised fungi spores and pollen. By the mid 2000’s he had built up a reputation for using his expert knowledge in helping to solve crimes. DI Greg Williams sent samples taken from Mel’s nasal passages, as well as seeds and other pieces of vegetation found on her body and clothing, to Dallas Mildenhall. His job was to see if he could pinpoint where the murder had taken place. He was eventually able to rule out certain locations such as the car parks Mel had taken clients.  As it turned out Mel had not stepped out of the car at either location. He was also able to rule out Dallington Terrace, the place where her body was found. He could not exclude the warehouse and surrounding wasteland on Galbraith Avenue. 

After 18 months of painstaking field and lab work, in December 2010 DI Greg Williams announced that they could now be certain of the location Mel had been killed. Dallas Mildenhall had detected Ripgut brome pollen on Mel’s body and clothing. These spores displayed a very rare mutation caused by a herbicide. The same pollen was found in the wasteland surrounding the warehouse on Galbraith Avenue. Police were certain this was where the murder had occurred. They believed that the crime had taken place outside with Mel lying on her back half on concrete, half on grass. 

While this pointed to the involvement of Mongrel Mob members, DI Williams said that other people did have access to the site. He added that there were no arrests imminent.

Nine months later, in September 2011, police finally revealed in the media that Mel had been sexually assaulted before her murder. Semen was retrieved from the body and a sample was used to generate a DNA profile. This profile, known as Male B, had been run against existing criminal databases with no results. It had also been compared with samples taken from potential suspects and persons of interest, including members of the Mongrel Mob known to frequent the warehouse on Galbraith Avenue. There were no matches. Mauha Fawcett was one of the people whose DNA was compared. This too was not a match. 

Despite this, investigators still believed that Mauha Fawcett was involved in some way. After all, he had confessed to them during interviews in August 2009. Since that confession police had spoken to Fawcett on four more occasions. During these interviews he recanted his confession and his story changed every time he subsequently told it. The details altered and different people and weapons were suggested as having been involved in the killing. 

At one point he said two Mob members had killed Mel, and then he altered his story saying a fellow sex worker had been the one to stab Mel in the chest. He named two different people as being the rapist and contributor of the Male B sample. The problem was that a lot of this information did not stack up under scrutiny. The two people Fawcett named as rapists were both cleared through DNA. One of them had a stone cold alibi as he was serving a prison sentence at the time of the murder. During his  ramblings Fawcett mentioned  a sex worker he had spoken to on the night of the murder. When she was tracked down it was proved she had been in Hamilton almost 1000 km away at the time.

Fawcett’s retelling of the events of that night were riddled with inconsistencies. For example he told officers Mel was dumped in the river without clothes, but that was not true. He was vague about the injuries she sustained and where the murder took place. He claimed it had happened inside the warehouse but forensic evidence suggested she was killed outside. He even told the police where the murder weapons had been hidden. When police went to the location nothing was found. Even the description he gave of his own movements did not match the evidence collected from his mobile phone data. 

Fawcett was interviewed for a total of 30 hours over 11 sessions between 2009 and 2012. Despite the lack of forensic evidence and the often conflicting narratives he presented, in March 2012 Fawcett was arrested and charged with the murder of Mellory Manning. A name suppression was not sought as a duty lawyer acting for Fawcett said his client claimed he did not commit the crimes he was accused of. The arrest was largely on the basis of the confession he had made during his interview with DI Tom Fitzgerald in August 2009. Investigators knew others were involved in the murder and  it was hoped Fawcett's arrest would be the first of several. Things didn't pan out this way and no further arrests were made.

The case went to trial two years later in the early part of  2014. It lasted four weeks with one hundred witnesses giving evidence. Fawcett represented himself after a disagreement with his lawyer Craig Ruane. The court appointed Ruane to help Fawcett as an Amicus Curiae, an individual permitted to assist a court by offering expertise and information. 

Fawcett claimed he had nothing to do with the murder and had stupidly given a false confession. He had done this following pressure placed on him by investigators who he said coached him and promised him rewards and their protection if he assisted them. Fawcett also said he had been high on methamphetamine during some of the questioning sessions.

The court heard how the Mongrel mob were all over Manchester street that night. One sex worker gave evidence to say a car with tinted windows was driving down the road and pulled up to her. Inside was another sex worker known as “Holly” who was connected to the mob. The witness said she feared that if she got in the car she would never have been seen again. 

The prosecution stated that Mel’s murder had not been random. She had been deliberately targeted because she had refused to pay the “$20 sex tax” imposed by the Mongrel Mob. It was even suggested that she may have been murdered for failing to pay outstanding drug debts owed to the Mob. A woman friend of Fawcett gave evidence saying she had been told a few weeks before the murder that one of the women was refusing to pay the sex tax. Just as an aside, if you remember Mel had not worked the streets for some months prior to the night she was killed.

The Crown prosecutor Phillip Shamy called the murder senseless and barbaric. The details shared in court were truly horrifying. The crown argued that Fawcett had lured Mel to the warehouse and had shown her threatening texts sent to by other members of the Mongrel Mob.

The attack lasted a quarter of an hour and according to the prosecution, based on information Fawcett gave in his police interviews, included the numerous assailants giving Nazi salutes and barking like dogs as Mel lay dying in her own blood. Four weapons were used in the assault. A metal pole, hammer, tomahawk and knife. Altogether there were a total of 66 wounds on Mel’s body. The prosecution argued that Fawcett had been a willing and full participant in the murder. 

The prosecution called a woman witness who was a friend of Fawcett and had known him for about six months prior to the murder. She said in the early hours of December 19th Fawcett had turned up at her house covered in blood acting “sketchy”. He told her he had been fighting with another mobster. The day after she claimed he told her that he had done something bad but couldn't tell her what. He also said he had burnt his bloody clothes.

Forensic evidence detailed at trial did not point towards Fawcett. This sample was too degraded to test. Fawcetts DNA was not found anywhere on Mels body or clothesFrom the genital swab taken at the autopsy three individuals' DNA was found. One was Mellory Manning, one was the unidentified DNA profile Male B. The third was trace amounts from another unknown individual. This sample was too degraded to test.

Jarrod Gilbert, author of “Patched - a History of Gangs in New Zealand” appeared as an expert witness. He provided context to the murder and described what life as a gang prospect was like. Gilbert warned that Fawcett would need to be protected as he had broken the Mob’s code of silence by talking with the police. In court Fawcett said he did not want to protect the killers and incriminated four mob members in the murder. The names were suppressed and not made public. This act by Fawcett would be seen as the ultimate betrayal by the leadership of the Mongrel Mob. 

Amicus Curiae Craig Runae argued Fawcett should not be blamed for the murder and the court should consider that he became involved in something that snowballed beyond his control. He was not the ringleader but someone who had been dragged along by the course of the night's events.

A jury of six women and six men spent six hours deliberating over the course of two days to come to their decision. On March 10th 2014 Mauha Fawcett was found guilty for his part in the murder of Ngatai “Mellory” Manning. Judge Gendall presiding was satisfied that Fawcett did play a significant role in the murder and was not merely on the sidelines as an unwilling participant. Fawcett was later sentenced to spend at  least 20 years behind bars.

Mel’s brother, Robin Manning said afterwards that it was the first step in seeing justice for his sister. While he was happy with the verdict he would not be satisfied until all those who took part in the killing had been apprehended. Following the verdict Mel's boyfriend Kent Gorrie spoke to the media to honour Mel saying that she had inspired him to be a better person. She was one in a billion.

The police announced they would not be closing the investigation, as they knew that several other people had been involved in the murder. They would not cease until all those responsible were brought to justice. No further arrests followed. 

Then in 2017 it was announced that the Court of Appeal had quashed Fawcett’s conviction. The reasons for this decision were not made public at the time as a retrial was scheduled to take place. With that the crown prosecution and defence were given time and space to prepare. The public were left to speculate and the story and any news about Fawcett vanished until the Autumn of 2021. 

On October 26th 2021 Justice Rachel Dunningham of the High Court granted an application by Fawcett’s legal defence to dismiss the murder charge against him under section 147 of the Criminal Procedure act 2011. This meant there would no longer be a retrial and Fawcett was a free man. Christchurch crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh had lobbied for the charges to be withdrawn rather than dismissed which left the possibility of Fawcett being charged again if new evidence was brought to light. It seems the police still believed that Fawcett did have knowledge of the crime. This, however, did not happen and Fawcett left prison knowing he could not be charged again for the murder of Mellory Manning without leave of the Court of Appeal.

This dramatic course of events had started in 2015 when a Wellington based lawyer, Christopher Stevens went to talk with Mauha Fawcett at Rimutaka prison. He had been persuaded to go as there was a suspicion amongst some in the legal profession, and others besides, that a miscarriage of justice may have been perpetrated. Within under a minute of the meeting Stevenson came to the swift conclusion that Fawcett was likely cognitively impaired. From that moment the crack lawyer and his team began to look deeper into the case.

Stevenson had Fawcett psychologically assessed by a neuropsychologist who concluded that 

he had Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This is caused when a mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. Two other specialists confirmed the diagnosis. Essentially this meant that Fawcett was effectively brain damaged. He was found to display many of the typical symptoms of FASD. His speech would often be slow, punctuated by long pauses and hesitations. His ability to function could vary tremendously. He had feeble verbal reasoning skills and would confabulate to fill gaps in his poor memory. His ability to think abstractly was weak and Fawcett could take a long time to respond to questions. People with FASD are also known to be highly suggestible, leading to the risk of false confessions. The aggressive and persistent questioning Fawcett had undergone was simply not appropriate for someone with FASD. The answers he gave could not be relied upon as being accurate or the truth.

This news had parallels with the case of another Maori man, Teina Pora. He suffered from FASD and was wrongly imprisoned  for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett in 1992. Teina Pora had a mental age of just 9 when he was convicted. He was eventually freed over two decades later.

Not only did the vulnerability of Fawcett worry Stevenson but certain aspects of the case just didn't add up. For a start there was no forensic evidence or eyewitness evidence connecting Fawcett to the murder. The motive for the murder was purported to have been due to Mel's refusal to pay the Mongrel Mob “sex tax”. However, Mel had not worked for many months, stopping long before the mob had moved into that patch. She had only taken two clients so far that evening. Would she really have been murdered over $40?  Besides, her partner Kent Gorrie said Mel would not have had an issue paying the tax. Likewise with the theory about an unpaid drug debt made little sense. Mel had stopped taking heroin and methamphetamine.

Stevenson filed for the conviction to be quashed based on the FASD diagnosis and the fact that  the Amicus Curiae did not adequately put forward Fawcett’s position that he had nothing to do with the murder. Rather he contended that Fawcett was an unwilling minor participant. These two reasons  led to the conviction being quashed in  2017, though as I mentioned the information was suppressed at the time. A retrial had been scheduled for early 2022 but that changed when all charges were dismissed in October 2021. All this information then came out into the open. It left Christopher Stevenson saying that this was one of the worst miscarriages of justice in New Zealand history. 

The police investigation came under a lot of scrutiny following the dismissal of charges but  Judge Dunngtham said that while the interviews were persistent and aggressive they had not been oppressive. She found the police had not lied in their conversations with Fawcett, rather they had misrepresented the truth. Police officers stood by their methods, saying that the FASD diagnosis was not known at the time. If it had been they would have proceeded differently. Lawyer Christopher Stevenson said it was obvious that Fawcett was cognitively impaired. Another of Fawcett’s legal team, Kerry Cook said even without the diagnosis the tactics used were questionable, particularly when Fawcett was repeatedly told not to talk with a lawyer. 

Robin Manning was left confused following the dismissal of the charges and Fawcett’s subsequent release from prison. He has sympathy for Fawcett for taking the brunt of the blame for his sister's murder.  In media reports following the dismissal Robin |Manning says he still believes Fawcett had a minor role in what played out during the night of December 18th 2008, but he does not want to see him back in jail. He wants police to target the actual killers of Mel. 

Following the acquittal Kent Gorrie, Mel's partner told Stuff New Zealand that he knew who killed Mel, but if he told the police he would be killed.

The police investigation into the murder and in particular attempts to identify the contributor of the Male B DNA is ongoing. There remain many unanswered questions about the murder of Mellory Manning, not least why she was targeted. I have read some speculative articles on Medium wondering if there is a connection between Mel’s murder  and the fact her sister Jasmine was in a witness protection program. However there is no evidence for this and as I say it’s speculation. 

The “bulldog insignia'', the symbol of the Mongrel Mob that Mauha Fawcett once had tattooed on his face with pride, has long since been removed. What he is doing now is unknown. Hopefully he has been able to experience a fresh start since leaving prison.

Mellory Manning's story is unfinished. 

If you have any information about the murder of Mellory Manning you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Sources: https://tinyurl.com/yxyy47mu