Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Police officers' trial starts in Napier court

Hawkes Bay Today
29 Nov, 2016 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Four police officers are on trial for allegedly assaulting Gregory McPeake during an arrest.

Four police officers are on trial for allegedly assaulting Gregory McPeake during an arrest.

Four Hawke's Bay police officers charged with allegedly assaulting a desperate fugitive who then died under arrest acted with reasonable force based on what they knew at the time, lawyers say.

Police were aware Gregory McPeake, 53, had serious assaulted his 76-year-old father Ray McPeake.

They believed he could have been armed with a crossbow, was possibly suicidal and could have had intent to kill his father and brother.

But what they may not have known was that when confronted at Napier's Westshore Beach early on the morning of March 13, last year, McPeake may have already had a heart attack and at 179kg was so big, and drugged, he would have struggled to follow police orders to get out of his small two-door vehicle and surrender.

He was confined by his size and was "immobile," Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk, of Palmerston North, yesterday told the opening of a Napier District Court trial.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

When Mr McPeake did get out, he fell and did not get up.

He stopped moving as police tried to tie his wrists and died soon afterwards, fulfilling the belief by his father that when his son fled after bashing him in the head with a cosh a few hours earlier he would not see his son again.

Called as the first of about 28 Crown witnesses, Mr McPeake Snr said his son knew that by assaulting his parents at their Hastings home he had "crossed the line" and agreed that his son would have understood there was "no way back."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Earlier, in his opening address, Mr Vanderkolk emphasised repeatedly that there was no causal link between the death and anything any of the officers did.

He and defence counsel Susan Hughes, of New Plymouth, Jonathan Krebs, of Napier, Doug Rishworth, of Gisborne, and Rachael Adams, of Tauranga, acting separately for each of the accused who have interim name suppression, said the case was about whether the force used by the officers when McPeake was tasered, hit with OC spray and bitten by police dogs was reasonable in the circumstances.

Mr Vanderkolk told Judge Phillip Cooper and a jury of six men and six women Gregory McPeake had been staying at a motel in Hastings after travelling from New Plymouth several days beforehand.

Police were called to the home of Ray McPeake and wife Barbara after the assaults happened about 6.15 on March 12.

Mr McPeake was taken to hospital with head and spinal injuries.

Police were unaware of McPeake's whereabouts until just before 12.50am when the Honda SUV was seen at a car park off The Esplanade by an officer who laid road spikes to confine the vehicle.

Appeals made by police for McPeake to get out of the vehicle were heard across the neighbourhood, Mr Vanderkolk.

Getting no response, a group staff, including all four accused, advanced on the vehicle, armed with tasers, OC Spray, and batons, with a rifle and a pistol available, and smashed the windows of the vehicle.

Tasers and spray were fired at him with little effect as he tried to strike out at officers.

McPeake grabbed one of the dogs that entered the car by the snout before an officer used a baton to prise McPeake's hand from a handle and he fell out, Mr Vanderkolk said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

McPeake immediately became unresponsive and first aid was started, using officers and St John paramedics, Mr Vanderkolk said.

McPeake died at the scene about 2.10am.

His father told the court he had not seen his son in at least two years, and was wary of his violent nature, alcoholism and drugs use.

He had been trying to get his son to leave his home when he was struck with the cosh, and ended up in a struggle in which he was struck several times.

Mr Vanderkolk said evidence to be produced at the trial would be a toxicology report highlighting Mr McPeake's use of a lethal array of drugs. Among other evidence will be images from cameras in the taser units.

The trial is expected to take at least till the end of next week.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction

Premium
Opinion

Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction
Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction

Artist follows in his grandmother's footsteps to craft a piece for Bay wine auction.

17 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble
Opinion

Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble

17 Jul 06:00 PM
Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

17 Jul 06:02 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP