Pageant shake-up and an elephant on the run
Creatures great and small hit the headlines during April. The courts were also busy and a beauty contest got a 21st-century revamp.
Man jailed for killing Palmerston North student
Jesse John Ferris-bromley was sent to jail for eight years for the manslaughter of his partner, 20-year-old Virginia Ford.
He repeatedly beat her in the months leading up to her death in March 2015. The High Court heard how Ford, a student at Massey University, was isolated from her friends and family by Ferrisbromley.
He would control her through violence and write ‘‘improvement lists’’ with suggestions such as ‘‘think about what Jesse says’’ and ‘‘sort out and admit mistakes’’.
Ford’s mother Pauline told the court she blamed herself for not doing more, saying her daughter ‘‘had become his punching bag’’.
Big changes for beauty contest
Miss Manawatu was subject to a shake-up, with mothers and married women allowed to enter for the first time.
Most pageants in New Zealand do not allow this, but Miss Manawatu director Kate Balfour said it was ‘‘a different world now’’. ‘‘We’re not in the 80s.’’ Other changes included replacing a swimwear parade with an activewear section and a competition more focused on appearance, called Manawatu model of the year.
Wandering elephant returns
The curious case of a missing garden ornament had a happy ending thanks to diligent Feilding residents and a post on the Neighbourly website.
Noeline and Greg Oldridge had a large white elephant, weighing about 40 kilograms, stolen from their Feilding home.
Their post on Neighbourly was seen by a man who spotted the elephant at a garage sale.
That man said he ‘‘confiscated’’