Kāinga Ora tenant Roger Woodgate’s anti-social acts lead to eviction after cat shootings

Tiaki Rise subdivision where Kāinga Ora evicted tenant Roger Woodgate after anti-social behaviour. Photo / Denise Piper

A Kāinga Ora resident managed to terrorise his community in just three weeks before being evicted and ending up behind bars for shooting four cats and threatening a neighbour at gunpoint.

Roger Allen Woodgate was originally a tenant at a property on Moodys Ave in Whangārei but moved into a Kāinga Ora house on Tiaki Rise, Tikipunga in October 2024.

Between mid-November and early December several incidents were reported to police and case managers of Kāinga Ora filed an application to terminate his tenancy based on the risk to the public.

During that time, Woodgate, who is in a wheelchair, was often seen yelling and throwing things around in his backyard and on one occasion destroyed a fence separating the houses.

Woodgate also stopped traffic on one occasion, hurling abuse at drivers and yelling at children who were walking to school.

On November 13, Kāinga Ora notified police that Woodgate had shot his cat in the head, killing it, and when a neighbour intervened, aimed a slug gun at him and threatened to kill him.

An anonymous caller also reported two days earlier that Woodgate had shot three other cats with a BB gun and laid the dead cats outside their owners' properties.

On December 5, Woodgate began yelling at a neighbour that he needed milk, sugar, tea and gas. Thinking Woodgate was diabetic, the neighbour let him through the gate and made him a cup of tea.

The woman began feeling uncomfortable when Woodgate started making sexual comments towards her.

When asked to leave, he revved up the verbal abuse, blocked the road and threw all the items she gave him at her house.

On another occasion, Woodgate flagged down a nearby contractor, began ranting and then punched the side of his van.

During this period, Woodgate kept returning to his previous Moody’s Ave address, from which he had been trespassed, and making a scene.

The new tenants living at that address had been on a Kāinga Ora waitlist for seven years and felt so unsafe they decided to move out just two and a half weeks into the tenancy.

After Woodgate breached the trespass order, police were called and allegedly discovered guns and ammunition in his vehicle and he was charged with unlawfully possessing firearms.

Kāinga Ora filed to the Tenancy Tribunal to have Woodgate evicted, citing persistent antisocial behaviour, to which the tribunal agreed.

Woodgate’s tenancy was terminated, with the tribunal ruling it was the appropriate response to the considerable distress the neighbours had experienced.

Regional director for Kāinga Ora Northland, Jeff Murray, told NZME behaviour like Woodgate’s would not be tolerated.

“In these situations, we will apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to terminate the tenancy, and we will not move the tenant to another Kāinga Ora home. This is what we have done in this case,” Murray said.

Woodgate was not present at the hearing as he was incarcerated.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.