By BRIDGET CARTER
Police investigating the death of stamp collector Rob Hunt are beginning to form a picture of the private life he kept hidden from his closest friends.
At least three homes have been searched in the inquiry into the death of the 55-year-old, found in a pool of blood in
his Ellerslie home on Saturday.
It has emerged that Mr Hunt featured on a gay connections website, calling himself Stampman and seeking the company of young Asian and Polynesian males.
On the website, Mr Hunt said he was looking for friendship. He wanted to meet his "real soulmate", "but friendship comes first".
He described himself as someone who "loves to laugh, giggle, have fun, drink a little bourbon or wine".
Mr Hunt said he liked quiet times and someone to go walking with.
"Always love to hear from anyone with a sense of humour, more than half a brain and who is willing to chat."
Showing the sense of humour he described as his "best attribute", Mr Hunt ended by saying: "Oh, and there is the cat. Ginge. He is 15, and if he doesn't like you then ... "
A close friend, Barbara Streeter, was unaware that Mr Hunt had featured on the website three years ago.
She has said that in the late 1980s he took troubled young men into his home. He gave them money and they could come and go as they pleased.
Friends have said Mr Hunt was not involved in any illegal activity and police say he has never been charged or convicted of a crime.
The Herald has discovered that a man who helped to run stamp camps with him was a convicted paedophile who befriended boys through his Hamilton stamp club.
In August 2001, Gordon Owen Passau, 60, a retired stamp dealer, was sentenced to six years' jail after admitting five counts of indecent assault and unlawful sexual connection with a boy under 12.
Mrs Streeter said the men ran the national youth stamp camps together, but they were not close friends.
Mr Hunt was as shocked as anyone when he found out Passau was a paedophile. No one was sexually abused by Passau at the camps, she said.
Geoff Tyson, who has been running the youth stamp camp in Christchurch this week, said Mr Hunt did not even have time to be gay because he devoted his life to stamp collecting.
Mrs Streeter was among a number of friends who described Mr Hunt as extremely kind and caring.
His supervisor at Warehouse Stationery in Glenfield called him a gentle giant.
In another development in the case yesterday, a flat was cordoned off in an Otara street.
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A neighbour said a Polynesian man lived at the flat and police had been there since 4.30am on Monday. Yesterday, the door to the flat in the two-storey block was open, with one police staff member inside.
Mr Hunt, whose funeral will be held tomorrow, was one of six children and lived in Christchurch before moving to New Plymouth, where he worked at Len Jury's stamp shop.
In the late 1980s he ran a stamp shop in Customs St, Auckland.
His family were "devastated" and his sister said he was their "teddybear big brother".
Police have said they are keeping an open mind on Mr Hunt's death and have asked anyone who saw his red Honda Integra to come forward.
Mr Hunt's body was found about 1.30am by his young Asian flatmate. The Honda was gone, but it was found later that morning near his house in Laud Rd with blood inside and the licence plate on the back seat.
On Tuesday, an 18-year-old with name suppression appeared in the Auckland District Court charged with taking the car last Friday.
By BRIDGET CARTER
Police investigating the death of stamp collector Rob Hunt are beginning to form a picture of the private life he kept hidden from his closest friends.
At least three homes have been searched in the inquiry into the death of the 55-year-old, found in a pool of blood in
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