Tara Shaskey

6 days ago | rnz.co.nz | Tara Shaskey

By Tara Shaskey, Open Justice journalist of A former successful farmer who ran a $4 million rural property is now homeless and "night-crawling" after his life became upended by addiction. About 14 years ago, Paul James Harrop was removed as a trustee from a family trust, which owned a farm in South Taranaki, after a string of methamphetamine-related convictions. Harrop had been operating a "successful dairy farm operation" and was an "energetic farmer" until around 2009.

6 days ago | nzherald.co.nz | Tara Shaskey

Paul James Harrop has been sent to prison for offending linked to his homelessness and addiction. A former successful farmer who ran a $4 million rural property is now homeless and “night-crawling” after his life became upended by addiction. About 14 years ago, Paul James Harrop was removed as a trustee from a family trust, which owned a farm in South Taranaki, after a string of methamphetamine-related convictions.

1 week ago | nzherald.co.nz | Tara Shaskey

A woman involved in a late-night brawl on a city street got into her ute and drove towards the group she’d been fighting with before ploughing into a woman and crushing her into a concrete wall. But while Tracey Lee Castle, who was behind the wheel, accepts she seriously hurt Saraphine Hoyle and should be punished, she maintains she did not intend to.

1 week ago | nzherald.co.nz | Tara Shaskey

John Paul Smith, of Hāwera, South Taranaki, was sentenced in New Plymouth District Court on a raft of sexual offending charges, including rape, relating to an incident in Hāwera in 2022. WARNING: This story contains details of sexual offendingA drunk man with sex on his mind cunningly got what he wanted from a young woman by taking her to an isolated area and persuading her to play a game of “truth, dare or command”.

1 week ago | rnz.co.nz | Tara Shaskey

By Tara Shaskey, Open Justice reporter of It has been a little more than a year since Laleni Saini's husband died in a machinery accident at a timber mill. Life looks very different for her now. As the widow grapples with grief, she also faces parenthood and financially supporting a family alone, all with very little emotional support. What has kept her going, she said, was her pursuit of justice for the death of her husband, Sorav Saini.