Hohua simply ignored every condition of his bail – not to go within 100m of where Marie lived; not to contact her; not to drink or do drugs; an overnight curfew.

Instead, on the night he killed Marie, Hohua went to her home where they drank and smoked cannabis with four other people. It was a Tuesday night, November 22, 2016.

Worried about his curfew, Hohua went back to Windsor St just before 7pm. He took Vivienne, by then 19 months old.

But worried Marie was being unfaithful, Hohua walked back to Wellington St, pushing the toddler in a stroller.

He knocked on the door. No answer. Fuelled by his belief that Marie was cheating on him, Hohua broke in.

Stalking from room to room, he didn’t find Marie until she walked in the back door.

Intoxicated, she didn’t answer immediately when he asked where she had been.

So he punched her in the face. A second blow knocked her onto the kitchen floor, unconscious.

A neighbour called 111 at 9.58pm. He could hearing fighting, a baby crying and items being thrown around the house.

The teenager was told to call back if the violence escalated.

Prone on the ground, Marie was defenceless. Hohua punched her twice more in the head, then started stomping and kicking her in the stomach.

“Get up off the ground so I can beat you up,” he screamed. “Get up before I kill you.”

Hearing the stomping and the threats, the neighbour called 111 again at 10.06pm.

If the police didn’t get there soon, the teenager said, he’d go himself.

Marie started choking on her own blood. Hohua dragged her to the bathroom and washed the blood from her face.

She was left in the bath, under a running tap, while Hohua went to check on Vivienne, still strapped in the stroller in the lounge.

The 19-month-old was crying.

Marie was still choking on her blood. Hohua came back to take off her wet clothes, then laid her on a mattress in Vivienne’s room.

The lower half of her body was covered with a blanket; Vivienne was placed beside her dead mother, hidden under the blanket.

At 10.24pm, the police arrived.

Hohua fled out the back, stopping only when he was Tasered. No one was inside the house, he told police.

A blood trail in the dining room led the officers to Marie, but she didn’t have a pulse. They tried CPR but 10 minutes later, Marie was pronounced dead.

The post-mortem examination report of her injuries is upsetting.

Heavy bruising, swelling and cuts to both sides of her face. Bruises on the back of her arms where she tried to protect herself.

Both sides of her jaw broken, completely separated from her skull. More than 2 litres of blood pooled in her stomach and abdominal cavity.

The report said the final cause of death was “multiple blunt-force trauma”.

When the police called Vicki around midnight she assumed she was the one in trouble. But no, the call was about her sister. The officer asked if Vicki was sitting down and had someone with her.

“He said, ‘We’ve got some bad news ... your sister has been murdered’,” says Vicki through tears.

“I was screaming and yelling. I don’t remember what they were saying, my mind was gone. I couldn’t sleep.”

Beneath a deep grief for the loss of her closest sibling lies guilt.

As someone who untangled herself from a violent relationship, with the help of a friend, Vicki can’t help but feel she could have done more for her sister.

But she has questions, too, over what government and social welfare agencies could and should have done.

Why didn’t someone join the dots between a history of abuse and violence, police callouts, Child Youth and Family alerts? Why did Corrections fail to detect Marie was living with Hohua while on home detention? And why did Judge Bidois let Hohua out on bail, twice?

Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue declined to comment on the bail decision. Each judge is independent and their rulings speak for themselves.

However, Judge Doogue, who has been leading reform in how the judiciary deals with family violence, agreed to be interviewed about the wider issues at a later date.

Child, Youth and Family (CYF) has been replaced by the Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki.

The Ministry confirmed CYF was “working with the mother at the time of her death around keeping her and her child safe” but declined to comment on details of the case, in the best interests of Vivienne.

However, Bay of Plenty manager Tayelva Petley said staff are sharing “critical information” with other agencies as part of the ongoing change at the new ministry.

As for the monitoring of Marie’s sentence of home detention, Corrections said probation officers reported there was “no sign of Hohua at the premises during visits”.

Vicki: “Everybody knew.”