50-year suppression lifted: Mental health patient who murdered Christchurch pensioner had killed before

Last week, mental health patient Elliot Cameron was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Faye Phelps at her Christchurch home. Until now, the Herald has been unable to report the fact that Cameron had killed before - shooting his own brother dead as he slept. Senior journalist Anna Leask reports.

Frances “Faye” Phelps had no idea that the man who had been doing her garden for more than 10 years was a killer.

She and her family knew he was different, unusual. But none of them ever considered that he could be violent or dangerous.

In July 1964, Cameron had surgery to remove a brain tumour. Along with the mass, a “significant” amount of brain tissue was also extracted.

He was never the same again.

Faye Phelps and her brother Kevin Armstrong.

In June 1965, his parents were so concerned that they had him admitted to Christchurch’s Sunnyside Hospital.

From that day until August 1970, Cameron was in and out of various hospitals – after he was violent towards his parents, after “severe outbursts of temper, after acting suspiciously” and being “sullen, resentful and broody for long periods of time”.

During that time, Cameron went from being a voluntary patient to his parents successfully having him committed. He has effectively never been out of the hospital’s care.

After he killed his brother, while on leave from the hospital, the first thing he asked the cop who arrested him was: “Can you take me back to Sunnyside?”

Suppression orders granted in 1975 for Cameron, his brother Jeffrey, and their father, Ron, meant his name could never be published.

Elliot Cameron in court. Photo / George Heard

Outside of the Cameron family, close acquaintances, mental health professionals and police, no one had any idea what had happened and who was responsible.

Had the Phelps family been aware of Cameron’s grisly history, they say he certainly would not have been welcomed into their lives as he was.

The details can only be reported now after the Herald applied to the court to revoke the historic suppressions.

The first murder charge

Cameron was 27 when he stood trial before a jury in the Supreme Court at Christchurch for the murder of his 21-year-old brother at the family’s Bryndwr home.

He admitted pulling the trigger and shooting Jeffrey four times in the head with a .22 calibre rifle.

And he admitted that he intended to fire the rifle. But he denied the charge and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Earlier this year, the Herald was granted access to the historic court file, containing first-person accounts of the ghastly incident by Cameron and his father, and detailed information about the killer’s psychiatric history.

At 8.45am on July 26, 1975, Ron Cameron woke to a noise which he thought was the cat rattling the blinds, indicating he wanted to go outside.

He then heard the noise again in a different room and went to investigate.

He walked down the hallway and noticed Cameron standing in his 21-year-old brother’s bedroom.

“I saw Jeffrey lying on his back with blood on his face. I went over and looked at him, and I knew immediately that he was dead,” he later said.

Ron hid the gun in a cupboard and went to a neighbour’s to call the police.

When officers arrived, Cameron was standing out on the footpath.

“I did it ... I have got a long line of psychiatric illness,” he told them.

After his arrest, Cameron was calm, telling police he wanted to go back to the psychiatric ward.

At the police station, he pulled a .22-calibre magazine and spent cartridges out of his pocket and asked for a piece of paper so he could write to his university tutor.

The death notice for Cameron's first victim - his younger brother.

Cameron told police he needed to arrange for his dorm key to be returned and assignments to be collected and marked.

The arresting officer asked Cameron what had happened at his family home that morning.

“He was silent for some 15 seconds and then he replied, ‘I wish I hadn’t done it,’ twice,” he said.

“I asked again what happened. He said he didn’t want to talk about it. I said certain questions had to be asked ... did you shoot your brother? He replied yes ... he was in bed asleep.

“As a result of further questioning, he told me he had cycled from his flat to the house that morning and that he had a key to get in. He spoke freely about matters not connected with the incident that morning. He seemed quiet and composed.”

Cameron did not mention his parents at all during the interview, but disclosed he had been “kicked out of home”.

“He seemed very reluctant to talk on the subject ... he said all he wanted was to go back to Sunnyside.”

Later in the day, a detective tried to question Cameron further.

He was “quiet and composed” and while he refused to speak, he agreed to write a statement.

“But I can’t tell you any more than I have told them,” he said.

After he finished the statement, he was charged with murder.

A copy of the statement is contained in Cameron’s court file. It reads: “My parents do not want me living at home and this is why I live in [the university halls]. Last night I stayed in the flat.

“This morning I biked over to home. I arrived at 8.30am. I put my bike against the garage ... where I always put it. I must have gone to my room – it is behind the garage.

“I think I went into the house ... by the back door ... I just don’t remember what happened after that. I’m not sure. I think I got into a police car. I don’t know.”

Timeline to a terrible tragedy

It appears an incident at a family dinner earlier in 1975 sparked the chain of events that led to the fatal shooting.

Jeffrey invited his girlfriend home for a meal, during which Cameron insulted her repeatedly, saying she looked and walked “funny”.

Hillmorton Hospital, formerly Sunnyside Hospital.

Jeffrey “assaulted” Cameron, and the fracas prompted his parents to ask him to leave home.

The court heard Cameron “resented” that and told people he “wished his brain had died” during the surgery.

And then, on July 26, he got his .22 calibre rifle and shot the younger man dead.

The Crown described it as “a tragic family” case, but maintained Cameron was guilty of murder.

Defence lawyer Stephen Erber told the jury that while he admitted killing his brother, Cameron was insane at the time.

He said it was “a very sad” incident and that Cameron had believed he had been kicked out of the family home because of a “plot engineered by his younger brother”.

Ron Cameron was the main witness at the trial, which took just one day.

He began his evidence by describing his son’s life and the lead-up to the shooting.

“My son Elliot had a normal school life until 16 when we discovered he had a brain tumour and required surgery,” he said.

“In 1964, he became moody and restless; he was not progressing at school, and he became progressively more anxious and irritable. He was a worried boy. He suffered headaches all his life.”

Then one day Cameron came home from playing rugby “very white” and said he had been running with the ball when “something exploded” in his head.

He thought he had been kicked.

“My wife and I obtained the opinion of an expert neurosurgeon,” said Ron.

Faye Phelps was a much loved mother and her death has impacted her family immensely.

They were advised Cameron needed a “very substantial” operation but not that “significant parts” of the boy’s brain “had to be removed”.

“We were not informed what would actually happen,” Ron revealed.

“We were informed [later] it was absolutely necessary as if he did not have it he would be dead by Christmas.

“From the date immediately after the operation, he was a changed lad. Because of changes noticed, in approximately 1969, he was admitted to Sunnyside. He has been in and out of hospital since that time.”

Before surgery, Cameron was “above average intelligence, animated, normal”. Afterwards, he was a loner and found it hard to get on with people.

During this time, Cameron shot the neighbour’s dog with a slug gun.

In 1969, he returned to Sunnyside as a voluntary patient.

The court heard that the next year, his parents made an application to have him committed.

This followed a violent incident at home after which he appeared to be totally emotionless as to whether his parents were upset.

He later told Ron that he wished he had died as a consequence of the operation.

In 1972, Cameron went back to school. He passed the necessary exams to get into university and began studying for a degree.

But by mid-1975, Cameron was spiralling.

Bad or mad? The first trial

Three psychiatrists gave evidence during the trial, stating their belief that while Cameron knew what he was doing when he killed his brother – he did not know that what he was doing was morally wrong.

David Baron had been Cameron’s psychiatrist at Sunnyside. He examined him again on the day of the murder.

“He didn’t seem unduly distressed; his face was, in fact, expressionless. At the start of the interview, he apologised to me for what he had done, saying it wasn’t nice for one of my patients to have done something like that,” Baron told the court.

Cameron told him he had been thinking of shooting his brother for years, but never had a specific plan.

Coverage of Cameron's one-day trial in the 1970s in The Press.

“He further stated he had thought of shooting his grandfather and thought he might have shot him had the family not moved him to Dunedin,” Baron said.

When Baron asked for the details of the shooting, Cameron was evasive.

“The interview was punctuated by quite long pauses of silence, Elliot making statements such as ‘all I want to do is lead a normal life’. I asked him, ‘Did you think you’d get away with it? What did you hope to achieve?’ He fell silent for some time, but then criticised the rigid rules of society, which he attributed to the position he was in,” said the psychiatrist.

“He stated he thought he would be able to return home and continue university study after spending perhaps two months at Sunnyside. He showed no signs of anxiety or any understanding of the effect his actions would have on his parents or indeed his own future. It was clear at the time he knew what he’d done.”

Baron deemed Cameron fit to stand trial.

A second psychologist testified that Cameron had “organic psychosis of the mind”.

He knew what he was doing when he killed his brother, but, as a result of his brain damage, he lacked the capacity to know the moral wrong or rightness of the act.

Another Sunnyside doctor told the court Cameron was “not capable of forming moral judgement at all”.

“If he presented at your surgery today, can’t you tell would you commit him or not?” asked the judge.

“Yes,” said the expert.

They said Cameron’s hypothalamus, which controls emotions, was damaged during surgery.

“He considered it right in his eyes. He was unable to consider it in society’s eyes. He feels and has shown us around the ward since his admission that life should revolve around him because of unfairness to him, leaving him as he is since the operation,” they said.

“It is my opinion that the brain tumour and subsequent surgery with the removal of further brain tissue created an organic disease of the mind which reduced his intelligence and crippled his personality in such a way that he was no longer able to perceive the feelings of others and thus became cut off from normal human relationships.

Cameron killed his brother Jeffrey in 1975.

“He stated to me, ‘Now that he has got [his brother] shot, he will be able to return home and live with his parents once more. I consider that he knew what he was doing and that his action was likely to cause the death of his brother. But I do not think that at the time he knew what he was doing was morally wrong.

“He was inclined to blame the rules of society and appeared unaware that his behaviour would cause distress, and further felt that the way was now clear for him to return home and to university. He felt what he had done was an essential rightness. He had always felt it was grossly unfair – he said [his brother] should have had the brain tumour. He was less intelligent.

“I think he should remain in hospital for a long period – over the years since the tumour he has shown slight evidence of recovery.”

A killing kept secret - the 1975 suppression

At the end of the proceedings, Cameron’s lawyer applied for a final order suppressing the killer’s name.

Chief Justice Richard Wild said it would be “proper” to make such an order in the interests of Cameron and his family.

He noted he was usually reluctant to make such orders because “the public were entitled to know what went on in the courts”.

However, in cases like Cameron’s, he said “the public have no such interest”.

When Cameron was charged with murder for a second time, the Herald applied to the court to revoke the 1975 order.

The defence opposed the revocation but both the Crown and victim’s family supported the details being published.

“The public has a right to know when serious harm has resulted from failures within systems meant to protect us. Without lifting the suppression, the media cannot fully report this story. Without full reporting, we cannot have an informed public or hold institutions accountable,” Karen Phelps, Faye’s daughter, told the court.

“This is how change is made. If nothing changes, I strongly believe this could happen again, not just with relation to Cameron but other patients as well. The media’s ability to report this case fully and truthfully could help bring reform, whether in how mental health patients are supervised and cared for, how the public is informed or how risk is managed.

“That possibility of preventing future harm must now take precedence.”

Karen Phelps also said she felt “silenced” by the historic order.

“The order prevents me from speaking honestly and openly about what happened to my mother and why,” she said.

“As this is the second time that Cameron has killed, his age and the fact that he has no living immediate family, I believe name suppression serves no purpose.”

Justice Rachel Dunningham granted the revocation application.

She said the 1975 order had been put in place to protect Cameron’s privacy “and allow him to lead as normal a life as possible without the stigma of being identified as someone who has killed”.

She said that was “entirely spent at the point he attacked and killed Mrs Phelps”.

“The public interest, including the principle of open justice, requires the full facts of Mr Cameron’s history to be disclosed, allowing a free and frank exchange of opinions on whether the risk he ultimately proved to be, could have been identified sooner and managed better,” she said.

“The revocation of the order is also required to explain why the purpose of protecting the community was so central to the sentence I imposed on Mr Cameron for the murder of Mrs Phelps.”

Killer Cameron ‘seemed harmless’

Karen Phelps told the Herald that Cameron was an “odd character” but nothing about him indicated the violence he would inflict on her mother.

“Elliot was the gardener for the house up the back for over ten years, so we all knew him. We knew he lived in some sort of shared living situation where meals were cooked for them. He was intelligent and could hold a good conversation, so it seemed more like he was someone who just needed some living support but wasn’t dangerous in any way,” she said.

“Mum was a person who was always thinking of others and wanting to help them in any way she could. Elliot was an example of this.

“I’m sure we could have got someone in who would have been easier but Mum liked to help and overall Elliot did a good job.”

When details of Cameron’s violent past surfaced, all Karen felt was “shock”.

“We obviously didn’t know ... it would have made a difference,” she explained.

“Mum was extremely security conscious living on her own and there is no way she would have felt safe having someone like Elliot doing her gardening, especially as we now know how severe his past mental health history was.

“She would go to share her faith with people in prison for example but they didn’t know who she was or where she lived.

“We have a lot of questions about how someone like Elliot was able to be out in the public with no monitoring doing gardening for single elderly women.”

A homicide investigation was launched after Phelps' death in the Christchurch suburb of Mt Pleasant. Photo / George Heard

“You could tell he didn’t think quite like other people and was a bit unusual, but seemed harmless.

“He liked to chat and would often look a bit dishevelled from gardening. He would sometimes get a bit worked up over something and rant a bit, but he never seemed violent or dangerous.

“It was never anything violent, though, just more someone who has a passionate opinion about something.”

Karen last spoke to her mother on October 7 and sent her a message later that night. She was on holiday in the North Island at the time.

Faye Phelps was known to those in her church as a 'prayer warrior'.

Three days later, she realised Phelps had not replied and she became concerned.

Unable to contact Phelps, she cut her trip short and headed home.

She was back in Christchurch and on her way to her family home when the police called to say Phelps’ body had been found.

“I suspected it was someone Mum knew when the police first told me, as it was so highly unusual. Mt Pleasant is a very safe place and Mum lives up a long driveway and nobody would go up there,” Karen said.

“I narrowed it down to two people who were not police-checked. Mum was very security-conscious, so she only got contractors through Age Concern as they were police-checked. The two other contractors had come through neighbours who had used them for many years.

“So I asked the police if it was Elliot as soon as they told me. The police couldn’t tell me anything at that stage, but not many hours afterwards, they confirmed it. I was shocked as Elliot used to do my gardening as well.”

The murder of Frances Phelps

It was revealed last week that the day she died, Phelps met Cameron outside her garage after he bussed to her place from Hillmorton Hospital.

While there were no court orders or other legal requirements compelling him to remain at the mental health facility, nor was he under treatment, Cameron had for many years refused to leave.

Last week, Justice Dunningham revealed that Cameron had been a mental health patient for 57 years – voluntarily since 2016.

“[He] basically refused to leave Hillmorton Hospital despite efforts made to move him,” she said.

“There had been discussions about the defendant moving, however over the last decade the defendant has made threats to kill if required to leave the hospital setting.

“In December 2022, the defendant told nursing staff that he would be ‘hard to ignore if he was chopping up bodies’ and continued threats over the next couple of months to kill people if discharged from the hospital.

“In July 2024, the defendant threatened ‘disastrous measures’ if he was discharged.”

Soon after Cameron arrived at Phelps’ home, he retrieved an axe from her garage and bludgeoned her to death with it.

He then walked back to the bus stop and returned to the hospital, leaving Phelps’ body and the weapon lying outside her home. It would be days before her lawnmowing contractor found her and called police.

Cameron told several nurses that he had attacked a woman with an axe that day – and his confession was reported to police. Justice Dunningham said “for various reasons”, no action was taken.’

‘Terrible tragedy’: Why police did not respond

Police explained why this was when questioned by the Herald.

“The initial call to police came via 105 at 4.36pm on October 4, and stated Mr Cameron had disclosed to a nurse at Hillmorton Hospital that he had assaulted a woman with an axe on the corner of Mount Pleasant and Bellview Avenue,” said a spokesperson.

“Given the limited information available at the time, the job was not coded as a serious or grievous assault, resulting in a unit not immediately being dispatched.

“At around 10.43pm, another Hillmorton staff member called police and left a message to say Mr Cameron since told them he made up the claim of assaulting someone.

“Police acknowledge that the job should have been coded as a serious or grievous assault, however we believe it would not have changed the outcome of this terrible tragedy.”

The spokesperson said a review of the case resulted in the in introduction of training for emergency communicator and dispatch staff to assist with the decision-making process when coding events as they occur.

Karen Phelps said someone should have alerted her mother to his past. The historic suppression order meant information about Cameron was limited, but she still could have been warned by someone over the 10 years he worked for her.

“If Mum had done a police check on him, it would have shown nothing up, so she had no way to protect herself and make an informed decision,” she said.

Faye's daughter Karen said her life will never be the same after the loss of her mother.

“I personally don’t think that someone with a history like Elliot should ever have been allowed out unsupervised to interact with the general public. It was a disaster waiting to happen.”

Karen said her family had been through the full spectrum of emotions since her mother was killed.

“I personally don’t feel anger and unforgiveness right now. Maybe that will change in time as more information comes out about Elliot and what happened,” she told the Herald.

“Grief reactions change over time. For me, the only person I would be hurting [being angry] would be myself, and I know Mum would not have wanted that. Other family members say they will never forgive him. I know my brother is very angry.”

Karen and her brother Grant have met with staff at Hillmorton Hospital to discuss what happened.

“When we went into Hillmorton ... they seemed to know very little. They said they only had his notes from 1999 onwards or something and didn’t seem sure where his historic notes were, which didn’t give us great confidence about how his health was being managed,” she said.

“They seemed disorganised. We knew more about this case than they did.”

Karen took notes at the meeting.

She was told Cameron had been a full-time inpatient at Hillmorton since 1992.

“But he has been there longer than that ... since he committed the first crime. They didn’t seem to have records for prior to 1992 was my understanding – or if they did they didn’t seem to know where they were.”

Cameron’s court file notes stays in mental health facilities in Dunedin and Auckland – as well as Sunnyside/Hillmorton.

“What I am interested in is how we are managing people like Elliot – not very well, obviously. He’s far from the only case of people from Hillmorton killing members of the public,” said Karen Phelps.

Her mother’s brutal death came just two years after another Hillmorton inpatient, delusional Somalian war refugee, Zakariye Hussein, murdered an innocent mum-of-four during a brutal, “random, gratuitous and unprovoked” street knife attack while on community leave.

Hussein killed Laisa Tunidau as she walked home from work on June 25, 2022, in the Christchurch suburb of Sockburn.

The shocking killing sparked two reviews – one into Hussein’s care, the other into the secure unit at Hillmorton.

Laisa Tunidau was fatally stabbed in Christchurch on June 25, 2022. Photo / NZME

“I want Hillmorton to realise the impact of the decisions they made around Elliot’s health has been on our family and the wider community,” Karen continued.

“I am especially concerned as a neighbour’s son interacted with Elliot a few weeks prior and said Elliot asked him the same question about three times and didn’t seem to take in the answer.

“That was not normal for Elliot as I knew him, so I suspect there was some decline in his mental health that was not picked up. My mother was the unfortunate victim of this.

“Elliot has done almost exactly the same thing he did decades earlier.”

Te Whatu Ora continues to refuse to give any details about Cameron.

South Island deputy chief executive Martin Keogh confirmed he was " a mental health patient" and a “full review” was underway.

“Our sincere condolences are with the family of the person who died,” Keogh said.

“However, I can assure the public that we are taking this incident extremely seriously and a full review will be undertaken.”

Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 19 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz.