Blockhouse Bay stabbing victim’s funeral: Scientist Stephen Thorpe remembered at tennis club

A man violently stabbed to death at the Blockhouse Bay Tennis Club in Auckland was mourned at his funeral service today, metres from where he died.

Stephen Thorpe, 54, died on August 24. His alleged killer, a 26-year-old man, was arrested less than a week later and had his first appearance in court last Thursday. He was granted interim name suppression.

“He was so needlessly and violently taken from us,” Thorpe’s officemate Gary Andrew said as he led the service.

Thorpe’s only family, his father Michael Thorpe, could not attend the service as he was too frail to travel. His funeral was attended by those who had become family through their connection to Stephen Thorpe through academia, schooling, and his work at the Whau River Catchment Trust building.

Thorpe, from Coventry in England, was described as a quiet man who lived a simple life of routine and science. Andrew spoke of Thorpe’s life “through a perspective of neurodiversity”, saying the likely autistic Thorpe devoted his life to studying bugs and insects.

The man violently stabbed to death at the Blockhouse Bay Tennis Club in Auckland, Stephen Thorpe, was mourned at his funeral service yesterday, only metres from where he died. Photo / Dean Purcell

A different side of Thorpe was also mentioned, his sardonic wit and a wry sense of humour. Others remembered his love of British comedy shows and 70s and 80s classic rock, with particular mentions of his favourites Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple.

About 200 people gathered on the tennis club’s courts to pay respects, with standing room only. Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin, the officer leading investigations into Thorpe’s death, stood at the back of the service.

Thorpe’s coffin, made from cardboard, was adorned in ferns, flax and other wildflowers. The service started with easy-listening live music, with Angelo D’Souza playing accordion arrangements of The Beatles’ Penny Lane, Let it Be, and Here Comes the Sun.

Andrew choked up as he addressed Thorpe’s father directly, thanking him for allowing the club to hold his funeral. He said Thorpe was “not like anyone else you’d ever met”.

A funeral was held at the Blockhouse Bay tennis club for Thorpe on Monday.

“He had very few possessions. When we were in his flat, everything he owned fit into a small trundler. He was wanting of nothing. He was content. All he needed was his microscope,” Andrew said.

“Stephen only wanted to be in a lab somewhere with insects and entomologists.

Thorpe’s high school best friend, Craig Anglesea, said they bonded as outsiders in college.

“Stephen had a tremendous impact on my life.

“He was a very intelligent person, very focused and very opinionated.

Stephen Thorpe, 54, died on August 24. Photo / Dean Purcell

“Stephen was the rock I clung to, someone who was confident in himself and loved his life wilfully, by his own choice.

“For me, Stephen will always be part of my life. He was a beer-drinker, a hell-raiser, and he was my mate,” Anglesea said.

The service ended after an hour and a half, with Thorpe’s coffin carried by a hearse on a short procession along the garden path he would take to work every day.

It then stopped 10m from where Thorpe was stabbed, and teary-eyed mourners laid floral tributes inside.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.