Double murderer Paul Tainui's case used as study for psychopathy, inquest hears

Double murderer Paul Tainui is now used as a case study for certain types of psychopathy for Corrections staff training, coroner's inquest has heard.

A joint inquest has been held into the murder of Nicole Tuxford by Paul Tainui, and the suspected suicide of Gary Schroder, whose daughter Kimberley was killed by Paul Tainui in 1994.

Tuesday was the final day of the inquest which was started in November 2022.

In psychological testing in 2010 Paul Tainui did not meet the level where he was diagnosed as a psychopath, but the chief adviser for Corrections, Dr Nicol (Nick) Wilson told the inquest that view would be different now.

He said there was now a better understanding of sub-types of secondary psychopathy, such as people who present as anxious and self-critical rather than overly confident, and Tainui is among a number of cases now used to train Corrections staff.

Wilson said they now look for things like hostility and seeking retribution for perceived hurts.

"Hostility can be carried within the person over some time and settings, and not be obvious until the particular circumstances that trigger that hostility, that pathological response to being rejected, and the desire to seek revenge for what is basically an ego wound, will drive someone to retribution acts."

The inquest also heard from a woman who acted as supervisor in the workplace where Tainui met Nicole Tuxford.

The woman, who has name suppression, said she had been told of Tainui's offending, but had the impression they were crimes of passion carried out in the heat of the moment, and only learnt later of his pre-planning and earlier offending.

She would be contacted occasionally by Corrections about how Tainui was doing, but never thought there were any concerns to pass on.

"I thought I got to know Paul well," the woman said, "and that he had confided in me, including about playing golf, his niece, his mother, his upbringing, and friendship with David Bain. He talked about these issues a lot. I thought I knew what he was up to outside of work pretty well."

She said she only learnt Nicole and Tainui were socialising after Nicole's death.

Jenny Keogan, a long-time friend of the Schroder family, said the inquest process had been arduous and long for the family members.

She said now they just hoped real change came out of the process.

"It just comes back to the simple basics. One of the biggest flaws through all of what has happened was communication amongst departments, and rather than being this aggressiveness from one department to another shouldn't they all be sharing information and working more closely together."

The inquest was started in November last year, and after two weeks was delayed for 11 months before resuming on Monday.

Victims' Advocate Ruth Money said the delays made a difficult time even worse for the families.

"There's the terrible combination of court delays, lack of coroners, defence games in terms of information from Corrections and other parties, and all culminated in an absolutely hideous wait for the inquest."

Coroner Marcus Elliot ended by apologising for the length of time it had taken and thanking the families, saying he assured them he had not forgotten that they were all there for Kimberley, Gary and Nicole.