4 Oct 2016

Man jailed for at least 17 years for pregnant woman's murder

12:15 pm on 4 October 2016

A South Auckland man who stabbed and cut a young pregnant woman 29 times has been jailed for life and will spend a minimum of 17 years behind bars.

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The man who goes by one name, Akash, earlier pleaded guilty to the murder of Gurpreet Kaur, who was seven weeks pregnant, and was sentenced in the High Court in Auckland this morning.

The Crown has said it was a particularly callous murder with the 22-year-old victim suffering five stab wounds to her abdomen. Her body was found on the side of the road at Hampton Downs, Waikato, in April.

Akash's lawyer said that on the day of the murder Ms Kaur told him the child she was carrying was not his, as he had thought.

At sentencing, Justice Palmer said the killing was despicable and brutal.

Akash had picked up Ms Kaur from the train station in Manurewa and driven south to Hampton Downs, a journey they had often made over a 12-month period, the judge said.

When Ms Kaur told Akash she wanted to end their secret relationship and that he was not her unborn child's father, he reacted violently.

"Using a knife you kept in the car you cut and stabbed Gurpreet 29 times in the scalp, face, neck, chest, abdomen. A cut to her neck cut her jugular. There were also cuts on her right hand and left forearm consistent with her defending herself."

Akash has been in New Zealand for three years on a student visa.