Chief coroner named

Anna Tutton has been appointed as New Zealand’s new chief coroner. She has been a coroner since January 2015 and was made deputy chief coroner in 2020. She took on the role of leading the coronial bench in the interim period after the previous chief coroner, Judge Deborah Marshall, retired. The announcement was made via a statement issued by Attorney-General David Parker’s office yesterday. Before her appointment as a coroner, Tutton was manager of the police legal team and acted as legal adviser to the police response to the Pike River mining disaster. She has previously worked primarily in criminal law and legal training roles, including as a High Court judges’ clerk, assistant Crown counsel, Crown prosecutor, senior counsel at the Commerce Commission and deputy national director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. Tutton will assume her new role as chief coroner based in Wellington.