Matapaki

Case Summary: New Zealand Police v Hannah Meiling Murphy & Ors

In New Zealand Police v Murphy [2026] NZDC 20914, the District Court at Westport held that BT Mining’s rights on the Ngakawau/Hector public recreation reserve were confined to the narrow licensed corridor around its ropeway at the Stockton Mine. Its trespass warning, which purported to cover the whole reserve, was too broad. The Court convicted the five protesters who had occupied the ropeway tower and coal buckets, and acquitted the four found elsewhere on the reserve. Fletcher Pilditch KC acted for all nine defendants pro bono.