2 Dec 2014

TV designer's killer guilty of kidnap

3:42 pm on 2 December 2014

A man who killed a television interior designer eleven years ago has been convicted of kidnapping a toddler after being released from prison.

Phillip Layton Edwards.

Phillip Layton Edwards. Photo: NZ POLICE

An Auckland District Court jury found Phillip Edwards guilty following a trial presided over by Judge Mary Beth Sharp.

Edwards had earlier also pleaded guilty to two charges of assault on a female and one of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.

Judge Sharp told the jury after it had delivered its unanimous decision Edwards had a long list of previous convictions they had not been told about for legal reasons.

They included the manslaughter of David McKnee in Auckland in 2003.

Judge Sharp had suppressed any reporting of the kidnapping trial but that order ended with today's jury verdict.

He had kidnapped a two-year-old boy from his home in the Auckland suburb of Panmure in August last year, sparking a major manhunt. The boy was found safe and well.

Edwards has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced in February.