Island murder trial

A NEW ZEALAND man accused of committing the first murder in 150 years on Australia’s remote Norfolk Island was flown to the isolated Pacific isle yesterday to face a pre-trial hearing.

Glenn McNeill, 28, was arrested in New Zealand in February and charged with murdering 29-year-old Janelle Patton on March 31, 2002.

The former penal colony, 1,900 kilometres north-east of Sydney, had not seen a murder in a century and a half.

The killing triggered an unprecedented investigation, with three-quarters of Norfolk Island’s 1,600 permanent population giving their fingerprints to federal police.