Rebecca Wright-Meldrum and David Hawken have been jailed for life, with a minimum term of 10 years, for murdering Angela Blackmoore (inset) in Christchurch in 1995. Photo / George Heard
“You are sheer evil and, if anyone deserves the death sentence, it would be you.”
That was the message Angela Blackmoore’s grieving partner had for two people who were today jailed for her murder 28 years ago.
Laurie Anderson was one of five people who gave moving victim impact statements about Blackmoore who they say had an “amazing future” ahead of her before her life was brutally taken while her 2-year-old son slept nearby. She was pregnant at the time with her second child.
Former debt collector David Hawken and ex-stripper Rebecca Wright-Meldrum, who were found guilty of Blackmoore’s 1995 murder last year, were today sentenced to life imprisonment. They will both serve at least 10 years before they can be considered for release.
A third person, Jeremy Powell, also admitted murdering Blackmoore. He alleged he carried out the killing for Hawken, 50, to help free up a property deal, after being offered $10,000. He said Wright-Meldrum, 51, who was his partner at the time, accompanied him to Blackmoore’s home and she used her friendship with Blackmoore to gain entry.
Blackmoore, 21, was about nine weeks pregnant when she was murdered, and her 2-year-old son was asleep in the house. Her partner, Laurie Anderson, was at work and their flatmate was out of town.
She was struck with a bat and stabbed with a knife, suffering 39 stab wounds to her head, neck, chest, abdomen and limbs.
Despite a “massive police investigation” dubbed Operation Vancouver, no one was arrested for 25 years.
In the High Court at Christchurch today, Justice Rachel Dunningham
acknowledged Blackmoore’s partner for his commitment to attending every step of the court process and said her loved ones had honoured her memory through their victim impact statements which were read out in court.
Blackmoore’s loved ones shared fond memories of the young mother who had an unforgettable giggle and excitement behind her eyes.
Jill Pervis, Blackmoore’s cousin, asked the defendants what made them think they had the right to take part in such a brutal murder.
“Did Angie’s cries not mean anything to you?”
She said her cousin’s life was worth more than any amount of money and the pair had not only killed Blackmoore but denied a baby the right to live.
Another cousin, Leanne Keen, said she had been waiting since she was 13 to see the people responsible brought to justice.
She was disgusted with the pair’s lack of remorse and their attitudes while they sat in the dock during their trial, shaking their heads as evidence against them was presented.
“Rot in hell, the pair of you.”
Blackmoore’s niece Stacey said Blackmoore was a beautiful woman who had an unforgettable giggle.
She said Blackmoore had found true love and had an amazing future ahead but it was taken away by Hawken and Wright-Meldrum, who knew she was pregnant when she was killed.
“Both of you are evil scumbags.
“You’ve destroyed so many lives and you just don’t care.”
Anderson said he had found his “dream woman”, who loved him just as much as he loved her.
He would rub her tummy at night knowing they were making a beautiful baby together and had many plans for the future, but these were ripped away from them.
“You are sheer evil and, if anyone deserves the death sentence, it would be you.”
He said the glow in Blackmoore’s eyes and excitement for the future was “intoxicating” and she had started a new life.
He still felt guilty about being at work the night she was murdered because he was not there to protect her when she needed him.
Justice Dunningham said the main issue for the sentencing was to consider whether a minimum period of imprisonment of 10 years was justified.
She said the motive was particularly repugnant because it was financially driven and worsened by the fact that the killers’ victim was pregnant.
Crown prosecutor Pip Currie said the pair had shown no remorse and had carried on living their lives after the murder. A sentence of life imprisonment would be justified for both.
Hawken’s lawyer, Anne Stevens, KC, asked the judge to consider her client’s age at the time of the killing, saying people in their early 20s were less likely to consider the impact of their offending.
She said that, as a young person, Hawken had made a lot of bad decisions but had made better decisions since growing up and had a partner who described him as “loving and generous”.
Wright-Meldrum’s lawyer, Katy Barker, said her client had had a difficult upbringing and became involved in sex work and stripping.
Wright-Meldrum experienced “considerable trauma” in her young life but was now a different person, had rehabilitated herself and was living a “quiet life” with her partner before her arrest.
Outside the court, Anderson said he was “glad” with the sentence but expressed disappointment about the minimum imprisonment term being 10 years.
“I will be at every parole hearing they get.
“I don’t go away, I’m gonna haunt them.”
He thanked the media for their coverage of the case, saying it was “the media who brought this to trial”.
In 2019, following up on new information, police arrested three people: Jeremy Crinis James Powell, David Peter Hawken and Rebecca Elizabeth Jane Wright-Meldrum.
In December last year, after 14 hours of deliberations, a jury found Hawken and Wright-Meldrum guilty of murder. Powell had earlier admitted the killing and was sentenced.
In her closing address to the jury, Currie said there was “overwhelming” and “compelling” evidence to prove both defendants were guilty of murder.
Powell’s evidence was “powerful” and, while he lied initially to police in 1995, he admitted his involvement when interviewed 24 years later, explaining how it happened and with whom he did it.
The jury could convict on Powell’s evidence alone but there was corroboration in several respects, Currie said.
She referred to Hawken’s partner at the time, Toni Parris, who said there were several meetings between Hawken, Wright-Meldrum and Powell at the Cashel St home where she lived with Hawken before Blackmoore’s murder.
Besides Powell’s evidence, Currie also pointed to evidence from Tina Cartwright, who told the jury she played a game of Dungeons and Dragons with the couple shortly after the murder.
She said she asked the couple if they had been up to anything exciting, to which Wright-Meldrum said they had killed somebody and they had stabbed them, that the person had let them into the house and that they were an “ex-friend”.
Cartwright asked who committed the murder and Powell said he did it, but Wright-Meldrum said she was also involved.
She also pointed to Blackmoore’s ex-husband, William. At the time of the murder, Hawken was “assisting” the couple, who had separated, with the sale of one of their properties. The property needed to be sold to reduce the debt on their mortgage and protect their home on Cashel St from being sold.
In his evidence, William Blackmoore told the jury that, two years after the murder, he served a trespass notice on Hawken, who then allegedly threatened him by saying he would name him as the reason for Hawken getting Blackmoore killed.
Intercepted phone calls also played a significant part in the trial. About 15 minutes after being called by police in October 2019 about being interviewed, Wright-Meldrum called her partner to say that, if she was not home, she should assume she had been arrested.
In a call with someone else, she said she was going to prison and made arrangements for her animals and her home.
In another call, which Currie said was a “slam dunk”, Wright-Meldrum said Blackmoore’s murder had nothing to do with any gang and that, while police were interested in gangs, “we were safe, and now we are f*****”.
Currie rejected the suggestion that Hawken was only trying to help the Blackmoores and was “the good guy”.
“It’s pretty clear that David Hawken was not just getting involved here to help out a mate. He had his eye on Cashel St for his own ulterior motives,” she said.
“He got involved because he was only thinking about one person and that was David Hawken.”
Detective Sergeant Todd Hamilton thanked all of the police who had worked “tirelessly’ on the case over three decades to get answers for the family.
“Today was about Angela and her family.
“It has been a long and painful nearly three decades since Angela was taken away from them, with most of those spent not knowing who was responsible.
“Today’s sentencing doesn’t bring Angela back, and it certainly doesn’t cure the grief the family has endured, but we hope it will help them move forward.”
Emily Moorhouse is a Christchurch-based Open Justice journalist at NZME. She joined NZME in 2022. Before that, she was at the Christchurch Star.
The woman was shaken by the incident.