{"id":6120,"date":"2023-07-03T22:26:12","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T10:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6120"},"modified":"2023-07-03T22:26:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T10:26:12","slug":"paul-hughes-responsible-for-fishermans-murder-detained-in-mental-health-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6120","title":{"rendered":"Paul Hughes responsible for fisherman\u2019s murder, detained in mental health hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-sub-nav c-sub-nav--inline \"><\/div>\n<div class=\"content__primary u-divider-bottom@until-medium\">\n<div class=\"article article-news article-news-493112\">\n<header class=\"article__header c-story-header\">\n<div class=\"o-kicker\">\n<div class=\"o-kicker__zones\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"c-story-header__headline\">Paul Hughes responsible for fisherman\u2019s murder, detained in mental health hospital<\/h1>\n<div class=\"c-story-header__meta\">\n<div class=\"c-social\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<nav class=\"c-social__menu\">\n<div class=\"c-social__buttons\"><\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article__body\">\n<div class=\"story-attribution nzherald-attribution\">\n<p class=\"story-paragraph nzherald-paragraph\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--NUbdc5X3--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1647392364\/4LW67H4_image_crop_138471\" alt=\"No caption\" width=\"1050\" height=\"590\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">The Whangamarino River and wetlands. (File photo)\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0DOC<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>WARNING: This story includes graphic details and may be upsetting.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>A man who frantically stabbed a former Myanmar refugee 14 times while the victim was fishing in Meremere says he &#8220;just flipped out&#8221; after his money card was cut off.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Joe Hughes, 37, was arrested not long after the killing of Abdul Kareem who was found dead in the Whangamarino River by a member of the public on 15 February, last year.<\/p>\n<p>Kareem, a father of four, was a regular fisher at Port Waikato.<\/p>\n<p>On the day of his death, Kareem&#8217;s wife, Chocho, packed him a lunch of some fruit, a kebab, and water.<\/p>\n<p>He put on a T-shirt, sarong, and jandals, leaving his M\u0101ngere home about 11am, setting out on the 40-minute drive south to his favourite spot on Island Block Road.<\/p>\n<p>On arrival, the 40-year-old set up his camping chair, a chilly bin, bait, and his trusty fishing rods.<\/p>\n<p>A neighbour would later tell police, he was a regular in the area and would often turn up in the morning and fish all day, sometimes staying until sunset.<\/p>\n<p>Kareem would often give the neighbour a friendly wave. But on this day, sometime prior to 4.30pm, Hughes arrived.<\/p>\n<p>Kareem was busy fishing, standing in the shallows of the river and the pair began talking.<\/p>\n<p>Hughes, who was of no fixed abode and had been sleeping rough in the Meremere area, then suddenly became &#8220;enraged&#8221;, stabbing Kareem 14 times in the face, neck, and upper chest area.<\/p>\n<p>When spoken to by police, Hughes said he &#8220;just flipped out&#8221; after his money card got cut off, and claimed to have stabbed his victim eight times and left the knife in the river.<\/p>\n<p>He then went to Kareem&#8217;s car, stole some money, and fled on foot.<\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;Major mental illness&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p>Hughes appeared in the High Court at Hamilton on Friday for disposition, effectively sentencing, under the Criminal Procedure [Mentally Impaired Persons] Act.<\/p>\n<p>Mental health specialists had earlier found Hughes unfit to plead, meaning under the legislation it is up to a judge to determine if the evidence against the defendant is sufficient enough to prove he caused the victim&#8217;s death &#8211; in this case, murder.<\/p>\n<p>No conviction is entered and instead the judge must decide on disposition &#8211; or sentence &#8211; into a mental health facility.<\/p>\n<p>Crown prosecutor Jacinda Hamilton told Justice Anne Hinton she had filed multiple memorandums, including a formal statement from the officer-in-charge, evidence, admissions by Hughes, and two reports by three psychiatrists around his &#8220;major mental illness&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She submitted detaining Hughes in a mental health facility as a special patient was the necessary outcome, not only for him and his treatment but also for members of the public.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The order is necessary in terms of the public, for safety, and it&#8217;s also desirable for this defendant who clearly needs significant mental health assistance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Justice Hinton agreed. She determined Hughes was responsible for Kareem&#8217;s murder and that it was necessary for him to be detained in a hospital as a special patient.<\/p>\n<p>Members of Kareem&#8217;s family also attended the hearing. They declined to comment when approached by NZME.<\/p>\n<p>Source RNZ<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Hughes responsible for fisherman\u2019s murder, detained in mental health hospital The Whangamarino River and wetlands. (File photo)\u00a0Photo:\u00a0DOC WARNING: This story includes graphic details and may be upsetting. A man who frantically stabbed a former Myanmar refugee 14 times while the victim was fishing in Meremere says he &#8220;just flipped out&#8221; after his money card [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6121,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120\/revisions\/6121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}