A challenge to court orders that suppress certain details regarding the Tom Phillips case has continued today with a two-day hearing beginning in the Hamilton High Court.
Stuff and NZME have made an application for a judicial review of a Family Court ruling. Media, including TVNZ, are seeking to overturn an earlier privacy injunction lodged by the Phillips family.
Court imposed restrictions have limited media organisations, as well as police and Oranga Tamariki, from sharing certain information since Tom Phillips was killed in the early hours of September 8.
The fugitive Marokopa father had been on the run with his three children for nearly four years at the time of the fatal confrontation with police in which an officer was shot in the head and shoulder.
One child was found at the scene and was taken into police custody. Later that day the others were found “well and uninjured” at a remote campsite, finally bringing the search to an end.
A public inquiry has been set up to look into the disappearance of the Phillips children. Attorney-General Judith Collins has appointed Justice Simon Moore KC, who served as a judge of the High Court for 11 years, as the sole member of the inquiry.
