She was picked up from Manchester Street and presumably taken to a property in Avonside and brutally killed by stabbing, strangling, and assault with a metal pole.

His conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2017, when it was finally determined that he was cognitively impaired due to fetal alcohol syndrome, and was coerced into signing the confession.

[4] Her elder sister Jasmine, who "ran in similar circles", entered witness protection and lost contact with Manning, then killed herself in July 2008.

Manning gave up prostitution and joined a methadone treatment programme to get off opioids,[4] as she feared she would die young like her sister.

[4] However, Manning's poverty and unemployment made her unable to afford Christmas presents for her family, and she returned to street prostitution for "just one night".

[8] A client picked her up at 9:30 pm from her usual spot at the corner of Manchester and Peterborough Streets and dropped her back there.

[10] The police believed she was kidnapped shortly thereafter, raped and killed, and her body dumped into the Avon River just before 11pm - her watch stopped working at 10.59pm due to water damage.

[18] In December, 2010 police announced they had narrowed down the location where Manning was murdered to a property on Galbraith Avenue in Avonside, close to where her body had been dumped in the river.

[20] In September 2011, the police confirmed that semen found on Manning's body did not match that of any of her clients that night,[21] and they were focusing their investigation on gang members as a result of the discovery of her death site.

[22] 24 year old Mauha Fawcett was a Mongrol Mob gang prospect, and was required to ‘tax’ sex workers $20 for each client in Christchurch’s red-light area.

[25] In March 2009, two detectives who have name suppression, arrived unannounced at Waikeria Prison, to interview Fawcett who was being held on unrelated charges.

They recorded the interview and lied to Fawcett claiming the Mongrel Mob blamed him for Manning’s murder and that his life was in danger.

Once again, they told him: "Don’t tell your f.....g lawyer everything about this, either.” [27] On August 10, he was interviewed by Detective Inspector, Tom Fitzgerald who had been involved in the arrest and prosection of Scott Watson.

[28] (At Fawcett's appeal in 2022, a leading expert in false confessions, Professor Richard Leo of San Francisco University, said that given he had FASD, the “threats and promises” made to Fawcett by the police were, “without question, psychologically coercive”, and raised the risk he would falsely confess.)

Ruane ignored Fawcett's claims of innocence and told the court the convicted killer took a "relatively minor role in something that grew beyond his control."

McGinn concluded that Fawcett "suffered significant memory impairment, and when he couldn’t remember, he was prone to making up something".

She described Fawcett as a “disabled young man”, and said his condition meant he would "fall for every ploy utilised by the police as they interviewed him over prolonged periods on multiple occasions".

[39] At the appeal, Stevenson was able to confirm that as a result of having FASD, Fawcett made a “bewildering array of incomprehensible statements during his police interviews".

[40][41] In September 2021, High Court Justice Rachel Dunningham ruled Fawcett's statements inadmissible as his foetal alcohol spectrum disorder "makes him an unreliable historian even when he is endeavouring to tell the truth".

The Crown asked for it to be withdrawn under section 146 of the Criminal Procedure Act which would allow them to relay the charge if new evidence came to light.

Cook said: "Having a lawyer is a deep-grained constitutional right – it can’t be taken away because of police pressure, or tactics or strategy.”[43] Tim McKinnel, the former detective whose work helped to free Teina Pora, said it was totally unacceptable for police officers to lie to suspects, “and telling a psychologically vulnerable young Māori male not to speak to a lawyer, whatever your intent, is a deeply troubling feature of any case.” [44]