Earl Campbell found guilty of Napier ram raid, kidnap and rape

Earl Strathern Campbell has been remanded in custody. Photo / NZ Police

This article deals with the subject of rape and may be distressing for some readers.

Police have praised the courage of a young woman who got drawn into a $22,000 ram raid on a sports arena and later told police she was kidnapped and raped by the driver involved.

Earl Campbell, 39, has been found guilty on a burglary charge related to the ram raid, and of the kidnap, rape and sexual violation of the girl, who was 15 years old at the time.

A jury trial in the High Court at Napier was told the girl disclosed Campbell’s sexual offending against her when police interviewed her in connection with the early-morning burglary 18 months after it happened.

She then testified in his 12-day trial, which ended on Tuesday with 11 guilty verdicts for Earl Campbell and two guilty verdicts on connected charges for his father, Ricky Campbell.

“It’s justice for a young victim and member of our community,” Detective Sergeant Darren Pritchard said outside the court after the verdicts were delivered.

“She’s shown a tremendous amount of courage to come forward and make a complaint,” he said.

“We would encourage all victims of sexual violence to come forward and talk to police about it.”

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The young woman, who is now 18, has statutory name suppression. The court has been told she is a relative of a long-standing drug-dealing associate of Earl Campbell.

Her ordeal began when she was roped into the ram raid on Napier’s Pettigrew Green Arena in the early hours of November 8, 2020.

The court heard she was the passenger in the stolen van that Earl Campbell drove through the doors of the sports centre and along an indoor passageway.

The van was then turned around and bowled over an ATM machine that contained $21,800.

According to evidence in the trial, Earl Campbell told the girl to help him lift the machine into the van, and they then drove it to the home of Ricky Campbell, 63, where grinders were used to open it.

While at Ricky Campbell’s property, which also housed a “grow tent” for cultivating cannabis, she was locked in a room.

The next day, Earl Campbell took her to a motel and raped and sexually assaulted her despite her telling him no.

A van was driven through the door of the Pettigrew Green Arena sport centre in a ram raid in November 2020. Photo / Supplied

Earl Campbell faced 11 charges, including rape, sexual violation, kidnapping, strangulation, aggravated burglary, unlawful possession of a firearm, and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

The jury came to unanimous verdicts of guilty on all charges except that of aggravated burglary for the ram raid, on which they could not agree.

However, they did agree Earl Campbell was guilty of the lesser charge of burglary – the aggravating feature they could not decide on had been whether he had a firearm at the time.

Ricky Campbell was found guilty of kidnapping, by allegedly locking the girl in the room at his house, and being an accessory to the burglary after the fact by using grinders to open the ATM.

Both men had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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Earl Campbell said he was in bed with his partner, who gave evidence supporting this, when the sports centre was raided.

He also said he had never been alone with the girl, and was again with his partner during the following night at the motel.

The trial was originally set down for two weeks but ran to a third, and the jury spent most of the last two days deliberating.

After the verdicts were handed down, Justice Helen Cull remanded Earl Campbell in custody until the father and son are both sentenced on August 30.

She remanded Ricky Campbell on bail.

Justice Cull told Ricky Campbell to “put your affairs in order” in case a prison sentence is imposed.

However, she also ordered a pre-sentence report with appendices, indicating a home detention sentence might be possible for the father.

SEXUAL HARM

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email support@safetotalk.nz
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.