The High Court in Auckland. Photo:
A woman charged with murdering her two children, whose bodies were found in suitcases in an abandoned storage locker, has told a court she will prove her innocence.
The 42-year-old appeared briefly in the High Court in Auckland on Wednesday for an administrative hearing. She stood covering her eyes, head bowed.
As she was led back to the cells, she raised her hand and called out to Justice Graham Lang: "I didn't do it. It's the truth. I'm going to prove my innocence."
Justice Lang did not respond.
The woman has been remanded in custody until a trial next year, after earlier pleading not guilty to two charges of murder.
The bodies of her two children were discovered in suitcases last August, after an unwitting family bought the contents of an abandoned storage locker in Papatoetoe, in an online auction.
The family had transported the goods, including the suitcases, home to Clendon Park on a trailer before unpacking them.
At the time, police said the children had died a number of years before their remains were found.
Stuff reported the father of the children had died in 2017, a year before the mother is thought to have arrived in South Korea. The children were aged five and eight at the time of his death.
The woman, a New Zealand citizen, was taken into custody in South Korea last September after the Korean Ministry of Justice received a request from New Zealand for her provisional arrest in connection with the deaths of the children.
Last October, Korean officials said they would proceed with an extradition.
"Having thoroughly reviewed the request and a large pool of supporting evidence, the ministry determined that this case satisfies the requirements of extradition request and there is probable cause to believe that the suspect committed the extraditable crime."
The Seoul High Court approved the extradition last November, and the woman was surrendered to three New Zealand police officers, who escorted her home.
She appeared at Manukau District Court less than 24 hours after landing in New Zealand. At the time, she entered no plea and asked to address the judge directly but did not, after receiving advice from her lawyer.
The identities of the two children remain suppressed by the coroner.
A judge refused to grant continued name suppression for the woman in March and her lawyer lodged an appeal, which is due to be heard in Auckland on Monday.
