By Colin Ambler\/cvnznews.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Christchurch High Court jury has found 33\u2011year\u2011old Hayden Tasker guilty of murdering Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming, the first female police officer in New Zealand ever killed in the line of duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tasker rammed his vehicle into Senior Sergeants Fleming and Adam Ramsay in Nelson\u2019s Buxton Square in the early hours of New Year\u2019s Day 2024. Fleming died at the scene. Ramsay suffered serious injuries but survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The jury of seven women and five men retired just after midday on Monday and returned their verdict 3.5 hours later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout the trial, the Crown argued Tasker used his car as a weapon, deliberately driving at the officers. Prosecutors said his actions were intentional, targeted, and lethal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defence painted a very different picture, claiming Tasker was drunk, suicidal, and attempting to kill himself \u2014 not the officers. They argued he lacked murderous intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The jury rejected that argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Cameron Mander spent two hours summing up the case on Monday morning, reminding jurors that the central question \u2014 Tasker\u2019s intent \u2014 was theirs alone to decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He urged them to put emotion aside despite the deeply distressing evidence. Police officers, civilians, and Tasker himself were seen in tears during the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou may only find Mr Tasker guilty of murder if the Crown has proved the three elements of that charge beyond reasonable doubt,\u201d Justice Mander told them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming\u2019s death reverberated across the country. She was the first woman in New Zealand policing history to be killed in the line of duty \u2014 a milestone no one wanted to reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her family, colleagues, and members of the police community were present in court as the verdict was delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tasker will be sentenced at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Colin Ambler\/cvnznews.com A Christchurch High Court jury has found 33\u2011year\u2011old Hayden Tasker guilty of murdering Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming, the first female police officer in New Zealand ever killed in the line of duty. Tasker rammed his vehicle into Senior Sergeants Fleming and Adam Ramsay in Nelson\u2019s Buxton Square in the early hours of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[817,1177,1178,113,308],"coauthors":[446],"class_list":{"0":"post-13138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-justice","9":"tag-lyn-fleming","10":"tag-nelson","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-police"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Lyn-Fleming.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13140,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13138\/revisions\/13140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13138"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}