Valerie Heaney, 64, was found dead in the hallway of her Bromley home on April 4.
Elliot Ajay Prakash, 43, was later charged with her murder.
Today he pleaded guilty to that charge and details of her death can now be released.
Heaney, a carer at a service provider for people with intellectual disabilities, was being isolated from her home with Covid-19 when she was murdered on April 3.
Her body was found the next day.
Police originally treated her death as “inexplicable,” but after an autopsy, it was upgraded to a homicide investigation.
Prakash was arraigned Monday before the Supreme Court in Christchurch before Judge Cameron Mander.
He is sentenced on September 9.
Justice Mander has given permission for the publication of the facts after the hearing.
It can now be revealed that Prakash was a boarder at Heaney’s house and the couple had a sexual relationship but had separate bedrooms.
On April 3, the pair were watching a game of rugby together when a heated argument ensued.
Heaney then wrote Prakash a letter advising him that he had a week to vacate the premises.
She noted that his threats and abuse towards her were the reason.
When she handed the letter to Prakash, he messed it up and threw it in a corner of his bedroom.
Heaney then sat down at her dinner table to write a second letter, further explaining why she wanted him to leave.
In the letter, she outlined some of the threats Prakash had made, including, “I’ll see you end up in the ground like your daughter.”
Heaney’s daughter, Natasha, who had Down syndrome, died in 2021.
While Heaney was writing, Prakash came up behind her and grabbed her with a hockey stick.
As he repeatedly hit her on the head, she tried to flee and reached the front door where she left bloodied handprints.
Prakash forced her back into the house and Heaney fell face down in the hallway.
He kept attacking her.
The court heard that it would have been clear to Prakash that Heaney was dead.
It was unclear exactly how many times he hit her, but she suffered at least 10 blunt force traumas to her head and lacerations, including one over 9 cm in length.
Heaney’s skull was broken into “many” pieces and part of it ended up on the floor next to her body.
She had defensive wounds to her hands, including fractures.
After killing Heaney, Prakash went to bed and left the house at 6 a.m. the next day and went to work.
He called the police just before 5:00 p.m. the next day, claiming he had arrived home and found blood on the door.
He said he hadn’t been inside and police officers arrived shortly after and found Heaney.
Prakash denied having anything to do with her death.
However, he was later charged with her murder.
Members of Heaney’s family were in court on Monday and others called via video link. They previously told the Herald that they were “mourning the loss of a beloved family member”.
“Our family has been inundated with support and we are grateful for this,” they said in a statement released by police.
“Val was a caregiver for people with learning disabilities and a social worker, which is a testament to the kind, wonderful person she was.
“We are grateful for the support from the police and Victim Support and would like to know exactly what happened to Val.”
Heaney lived in Walcot St for decades and started running her childhood home as a boarding house after her husband Gavin died about 13 years ago.
The experienced carer preferred to get ‘adult age groups’, according to previous advertisements and it is clear that three or four people would live there at a time.
-By Anna Leask