Killing of Christie Marceau

Christie Alexis Lesley Marceau was an 18-year-old woman from Hillcrest, on Auckland's North Shore in New Zealand. She and Akshay Anand Chand had attended the same primary school as children and reconnected in September 2010 while working at a local supermarket, forming a friendship.

On 6 September 2011, Chand asked Marceau to come to his home, then detained her, held her at knifepoint, and forced her to undress. He was arrested the same day and charged with kidnapping, threatening to cause grievous bodily harm, and assault with intent to sexually violate. Marceau wrote to the court stating that she feared Chand and asking that he remain in custody. A first bail application was declined on 9 September 2011. At a later hearing, District Court Judge David McNaughton granted Chand bail to his mother's house, subject to a 24-hour curfew and other conditions. The address was about 300 metres from Marceau's home. Police had opposed bail.

On 7 November 2011, Chand went to Marceau's home and fatally stabbed her, using a knife taken from his mother's kitchen. He remained at the scene and was arrested. Marceau died from blood loss.

Chand was tried in the High Court at Auckland. In October 2012, Justice Helen Winkelmann found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. Two psychiatrists testified that Chand had paranoid schizophrenia, and the court accepted that, at the time of the killing, he did not understand that his actions were morally wrong. The insanity finding did not extend to the earlier offending: he was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. He was detained indefinitely as a special patient at the Mason Clinic, a forensic mental health facility.

A coroner's inquest later examined the case. The coroner found that Chand had concealed his psychotic symptoms during multiple mental health assessments in the weeks before the killing, and that his dangerousness was clear only in hindsight. The coroner made a series of recommendations aimed at improving information sharing between police, lawyers, the courts, and mental health providers.

After Marceau's death, her parents, Brian and Tracey Marceau, together with the Sensible Sentencing Trust, campaigned for changes to New Zealand's bail laws. Their campaign, known as 'Christie's Law,' sought stricter bail rules and greater accountability in bail decisions, and became a focus of public debate over how the justice and mental health systems assess risk.