A 46-year-old Rimutaka prison inmate will be appearing in the Upper Hutt District Court this morning charged with the murder of another inmate at the prison yesterday.
Detective Inspector Rod Drew, Wellington Police District field crime manager and head of the homicide investigation, says police arrested the inmate overnight and he is expected to appear in court mid morning.
The body of 51-year-old Rex Leonard Hopper was found yesterday morning outside one of the buildings in the prison complex. He had stab wounds to his throat believed to have been caused by a garden fork.
Detective Inspector Drew says a postmortem started late last night at Wellington Hospital and will be completed this morning.
“We still have a lot of inquiry work to do at the prison with staff and inmates as well as the scene examination to complete,†Mr Drew says. “Those inquiries will take us into the weekend.â€
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