David Hawken and Rebecca Wright-Meldrum both deny murdering Angela Blackmoore (inset) and are standing trial at the High Court in Christchurch. Photo / George Heard
A gang-connected debt collector ordered a contract killing of a pregnant woman in 1995 to free up a property deal, a court heard today.
The brutal murder of Angela Maree Blackmoore, 21, inside her Christchurch home on August 17, 1995, while her 2-year-old son slept in the next room, has long been one of New Zealand’s most infamous cold-case murders.
Three years ago, after police suddenly received fresh information, Jeremy Crinis James Powell was jailed for at least 10 years after being found guilty of bludgeoning and stabbing Blackmoore 39 times in what a judge called a “dreadful and monstrous killing”.
Powell said the murder was organised by others and that he was offered $10,000 for the killing.
Two others – ex-debt collector David Peter Hawken and Powell’s then-girlfriend Rebecca Elizabeth Jane Wright-Meldrum – were later arrested and also charged with murder.
Both Hawken, 50, and Wright-Meldrum, 51, have always denied any involvement in Blackmoore’s killing.
They have pleaded not guilty and are standing trial at the High Court in Christchurch.
This morning, prosecutor Mitchell McClenaghan outlined the Crown case against the pair.
Sometime in the early 1990s, Blackmoore met Wright-Meldrum, the court heard.
They ended up close friends, working in the adult industry, living together and developing a sexual relationship.
In the middle of 1992, they moved into a Worcester St house and lived with William Blackmoore who Angela started seeing.
She soon fell pregnant and the couple married in 1993.
Although the marriage was short lived - they separated after about 16 months – they bought two properties together: an empty section on Ferry Rd and a house on Cashel St where they ended up living.
They had mortgages of just over $65,000, the court heard, and after the split, the Blackmoores began arguing over child custody and the properties and called in lawyers.
The mortgage was not being paid and fell into arrears, the court heard.
After Angela Blackmoore moved out of Cashel St, an old childhood friend of William Blackmoore’s - David Hawken – moved in.
He had moved down from Hamilton and was working in Christchurch as a debt collector and, the court heard, had become an associate of the Templars MC gang.
He ran his debt collection business from the Cashel St front room.
The Crown alleged that from “early on” Hawken had an eye on the financial benefit of the two properties, wanting to use them and his own assets to secure loans for future business ventures.
McClenaghan claimed that Hawken had been in talks with a property developer to buy land at Moncks Spur, Redcliffs for a multimillion-dollar development, while also looking to set up a telecommunications business.
In the meantime, Angela Blackmoore had started seeing a local man, Laurie Anderson, and had moved in with him at Vancouver Crescent.
He was a welcome change, the court heard, offering her stability and a way out of a more troubled lifestyle.
Hawken had started helping out with the matrimonial property problems, the court heard, and was talking directly with the bank over mortgage arrears. He also allegedly made a proposal to sell Ferry Rd to sort out the issues.
It’s alleged that Hawken also said to the bank that he was expecting a large ACC payout for a back injury and that he intended to take over the mortgage from Angela Blackmoore and become co-mortgager with William Blackmoore.
He also visited Angela Blackmoore at Vancouver Crescent to get her to sign documents but it’s not known if she did, the court heard.
But by then, the Crown says, Hawken was in debt, being pursued for bankruptcy, and his ACC claim declined.
So he “hatched a plan” and organised to have Angela Blackmoore killed, the Crown alleges.
He spoke to Wright-Meldrum and Powell, who had worked for his debt collection business, about carrying out the murder on his behalf, the Crown said, offering $10,000 for the job.
There were allegedly several meetings between the three – and on August 17, Wright-Meldrum and Powell went there with the intention to go through with the plan but “Powell on this occasion got cold feet and could not go through with it”, the Crown claimed.
Hawken was not impressed, the Crown said, and that he threatened to kill both Powell, Wright-Meldrum and their families if they did not follow through with the plan.
It was a threat that Powell took seriously, allegedly claiming that Hawken had boasted to him that he was behind several unsolved murders.
On the evening of August 17, 1995, Angela Blackmoore’s partner Laurie Anderson was called out to work and she was home alone for the first time.
A pizza was delivered about 8.50pm and by around 9.45pm she was not answering the phone.
It’s alleged that Wright-Meldrum got her safety-conscious friend Blackmoore to open the door before Powell, armed with a bat and a large knife hidden in his trenchcoat, attacked and brutally killed her.
Anderson came home from work later that night to find her dead.
Less than a week after her death, the Crown claims that Hawken was actively taking steps to use the Blackmoores’ properties as help for his future development plans.
A massive police investigation called Operation Vancouver was launched and both Hawken and Wright-Meldrum were interviewed at the time but denied any involvement.
The case went unsolved for more than two decades before Powell was arrested in 2019 after police offered a then-record $100,000 reward.
Powell will be called as a witness in the trial.
Wright-Meldrum’s defence counsel Stephanie Grieve KC suggested to the jury that the key issue for them was whether Powell is “credible and reliable” when he says Wright-Meldrum was with him when he murdered Blackmoore.
Grieve also urged the jury to put aside any feelings of sympathy or prejudice, including moral judgement when hearing of a world “which you may not be familiar with”.
The trial will hear that Wright-Meldrum was a stripper and a dancer in strip clubs and there will be evidence of people using drugs and having gang connections.
Anne Stevens KC, defence counsel for Hawken, said he had nothing to do with Blackmoore’s murder and that he had “no wish that she die”.
“The defence case is that Jeremy Powell did not fulfil an order from David Hawken to kill Angela Blackmoore,” Stevens said.
Powell’s killing has “all the hallmarks” of him suffering a psychotic episode, the lawyer said, showing that he was not only a murderer but a liar.
Hawken had no motive, no money, and no power to order a murder, his defence team say.
The defence case, Stevens said, is that Blackmoore’s death was contrary to Hawken’s interests and to his objective of avoiding a mortagee sale of the Cashel St property where he lived.
The four-week trial before Justice Cameron Mander continues.