New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz: Woman bashed to death over stolen Nazi flag, court hears

A Christchurch man bashed his former de facto partner to death in a blind rage over a stolen Nazi flag, a High Court jury was told today. Nicholas Robert Marsh, 38, has denied kidnapping and murdering Nicola Jane Hackell at his Christchurch flat last March 26. His trial before Justice Fogarty and a jury of seven men and five women began in the High Court at Christchurch today. Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh told the jury Marsh had subjected Ms Hackell to a "prolonged and determined beating" overnight on Easter Saturday, during which she suffered more than 100 injuries to her body and at least 13 separate injuries to her head. (...) Mr Zarifeh said Marsh, a thin man with a moustache and his receding brown hair tied in a short pony-tail, admitted to police he had given his former partner "the bash" because she had taken a Nazi flag that once adorned his lounge.