A murder defendant awaiting trial after allegedly stabbing two passengers on an East Auckland bus can now be named.

Mount Wellington resident Adrian Soane Patita Pani, 36, was arrested on December 9, one day after what police described as an “unprovoked” attack aboard Auckland Transport’s number 76 bus as it travelled from Glen Innes towards Ōrakei.

Wounded passenger Sefo Leger died that same night, after he was taken to hospital. The 59-year-old has been described as a “gentle giant” who was “loved by the community”.

Auckland bus passenger Sefo Leger, 59, was stabbed to death in December 2025. Fellow passenger Adrian Pani has been charged with his murder. Photo / Supplied

Police have said Pani got on the bus – which was otherwise empty of passengers – at 7.53pm that Monday and Leger entered just three minutes later. Pani is alleged to have attacked Leger when the older man got up to exit the bus near Fenchurch St in Glen Innes at 7.58pm.

Leger did exit the bus, with the driver pulling away unaware of the significance of what had happened, police said in December.

Adrian Pani appears in Auckland District Court in December 2025 after he was charged with murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Photo / Jason Dorday

The second person allegedly attacked by Pani, a 51-year-old who required surgery but survived, entered the bus at 8.09pm. Pani is alleged to have then started an unprovoked fight with that passenger, again using a knife.

The 51-year-old, another passenger and the driver fled the bus near the bus stop at Coates Ave and Kepa Rd, police said.

Police guard a bus in Ōrakei, Auckland, in December last year after two passengers were stabbed, one fatally. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Pani has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Defence lawyers Philip Hamlin and Danielle LeGallais sought interim name suppression for him at his first appearance in Auckland District Court in December. They asked for it to continue in January, during their client’s first High Court appearance.

They were given until last week to determine if they would file further paperwork to the court seeking a formal name suppression hearing. They declined to do so.

Pani is set to go to trial next February.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.