A judge declined home detention for a Dargaville man who admitted viewing child pornography and sent him to prison for 15 months.

A three-year-old girl who was run over in a marae carpark near Dargaville on Saturday is in a stable condition in Starship Children's Hospital.

A man who sexually violated a 73-year-old Dargaville woman in her home, dressed in some of her clothes and beat her up has been sentenced to nine years in jail.

A 22-year-old man is dead and three others seriously injured after an overloaded car lost control and landed in a ditch in Northland early this morning.

Eight elderly people who were injured when their van rolled in Northland have been discharged from hospital tonight. An elderly woman was killed in the crash.

Dargaville and the southern Kauri Coast are often overlooked but as Cate Foster finds, the region has hidden charms.

Robbers bashed, bound and robbed a 67-year-old woman in her home in the third aggravated robbery in Kaipara in a month.

Just over a fifth of all working-age Northlanders were on welfare benefits at the end of March.