Angela Blackmoore cold case murder trial: Ex-husband says accused told him he arranged to have mother killed

Angela Blackmoore’s ex-husband has told a jury a murder-accused said he arranged to have her killed but threatened to tell police it was the ex-husband who ordered the murder.

Former debt collector David Hawken, 50, and Rebecca Wright-Meldrum, 51, are on trial in the High Court at Christchurch. They deny murdering Angela Blackmoore on August 17, 1995.

A third person, Jeremy Powell, earlier admitted murdering Blackmoore and alleged he carried out the killing on Hawken’s instruction after being offered $10,000. Hawken’s motive, Powell claimed, was to free up a property deal.

He said Wright-Meldrum accompanied him to Blackmoore’s home and that she used her friendship with her to gain entry into the house.

On Tuesday, Blackmoore’s ex-husband William Blackmoore, who now lives in Australia, gave evidence.

Angela Blackmoore was stabbed to death in her Christchurch home in 1995.

He first met Angela a year before they got together when she saw him in a taxi. “She said it took her nearly a year to find me again.”

Angela eventually moved into a flat on Worcester St, where he lived with Wright-Meldrum, whom he described as a flatmate and friend.

They stayed there for about six months, and William and Angela ended up buying a house on Cashel St.

They married about a month before their son was born. The couple owned another commercial property on Ferry Rd.

William Blackmoore, Angela Blackmoore's ex-husband, gave evidence on Tuesday. Photo / Chris Skelton POOL

William Blackmoore said once the couple’s son was “nearly on solid food”, Angela informed him “how the marriage was going to work”.

“I could not work that way,” he told the court. “All I remember is handing her my wedding ring and walking out the door.”

He then spoke to a lawyer and got legal advice about their property and custody of their son. Angela ended up putting their son into foster care.

Asked how he met Hawken, he said the pair went to high school together and he met Hawken again a few years before moving to Christchurch.

The two were friends, he said. “If I could help him out, I’d help him. If I needed something done, he would normally be able to do it.”

He remembered Powell’s name but was not sure why.

Blackmoore said police interviewed him a day or so after Angela’s murder.

Two days after the interview, Wright-Meldrum spoke to him and wanted to know how much police had told him about how Angela was killed.

“I said they hadn’t told me anything ... Once you’re dead you’re dead, I don’t need to know how you got that way.”

He alleged Wright-Meldrum tried to keep the conversation going and told him that Angela was “pinned to the floor by a big knife to her forehead”.

Blackmoore told her he didn’t want to know. The conversation was over and Wright-Meldrum left. The pair had not spoken since.

At the time of Angela’s death, Blackmoore had moved out of the Cashel St property. Hawken was living there with Ross Hesslewood, whom Blackmoore knew as Oscar. Hawken was operating his debt-collecting business from the address.

Blackmoore said Hawken was supposed to be paying $130 a week in rent but he would often give excuses as to why he could not pay.

David Peter Hawken (left) and Rebecca Elizabeth Jane Wright-Meldrum (right) are charged with murdering Angela Blackmoore on August 17, 1995.

The mortgage got into arrears quickly, he said. He added that he would sometimes give Angela money to pay the mortgage, but did not believe she did so.

Eventually, he asked Hawken to sell the Ferry Rd property. It was expected they would get $10,000, of which $5000 would go to Angela, $4000 towards the mortgage and Hawken would get $1000 for selling it.

Crown prosecutor Pip Currie asked Blackmoore why he got Hawken involved in selling the property.

“As you can see [by] the way I dress, I’m your working man. And Dave was always in a suit and he had the gift of the gab, he can talk people to do quite a lot.

“I thought he’d have a better chance of selling it for me.”

Blackmoore said his plan for the Cashel St home was to separate it into two sections before putting a “granny flat” on the back to make it a three-dwelling property.

It was news to him that Hawken was telling people he wanted to own the Cashel St property and said there was no agreement for him to have Angela’s share.

“He would tell people a lot of things,” Blackmoore said.

In July 1997, Blackmoore sent Hawken a trespass notice and an eviction notice as he wasn’t paying enough money.

“I was selling the house. It had got too far into arrears, I wasn’t earning enough to get it out of arrears.”

Blackmoore said he went to the Cashel St property and handed the trespass notice to Hawken and gave him one week’s notice.

He said Hawken was “very angry”.

“You don’t know what sort of shit you’re getting into,” Hawken allegedly said. Blackmoore said Hawken mentioned “the gang” was trying to buy the property.

Blackmoore said Hawken then made a further threat. “That he was going to name me as the reason for him getting Angela killed.”

Asked by Currie why he would say that, Blackmoore replied: “I’m the ex-husband, obvious choice.”

Blackmoore said he told Hawken to “do what you like, you’re being evicted, get out of the house”.

Asked further what Hawken said and what he said his involvement was, Blackmoore replied: “Just that he arranged to have Angela killed.”

Blackmoore told the jury he was not into violence and walked away.

He visited the property again after Hawken was supposed to have left. He was still there, so Blackmoore called the police. Hawken told police he would move out in 24 hours.

Hawken’s lawyer, Anne Stevens KC, cross-examined Blackmoore about his relationship with Angela.

He confirmed she did not work or contribute financially. He said she would regularly go out and twice he caught her leaving their son alone in his bed with the front door unlocked.

He moved out because he’d “had enough” and he “couldn’t protect” their son.

Stevens put it to him that, on several occasions, he’d told people he’d be “better off if she was dead”.

Blackmoore admitted saying that. Asked about comments he had made to police during a 16-hour interview in which he said he’d thought about killing Angela, he said he’d spoken about how he was better off without her, not about getting rid of her.

He admitted he could have a bit of a temper, but said if he lost it he would direct his frustration at a wall or would walk outside and yell. He would also yell at the television.

“I couldn’t afford to hit anyone,” he said.

Stevens also asked about Hawken’s relationship with Angela. Blackmoore said Hawken knew her a bit and that they got on fine.

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard from Hawken’s partner at the time of Angela’s death, who alleged that, after the killing, Blackmoore visited Hawken.

She claimed that, after Blackmoore left, Hawken told her that he’d asked Blackmoore if he was involved, and he said no.

Blackmoore did not have any recollection of the conversation and said he had no reason to go to the Cashel St property.

Stevens also asked Blackmoore about his evidence in relation to Hawken’s alleged threat.

She said Hawken told Blackmoore he would tell police that he organised for Angela to be murdered, and that he did not confess to being involved at all.

Blackmoore said Hawken did say he was involved, to which Stevens asked why he did not tell the police earlier.

“He did say it, I just forgot to do it in my first statement.

“I must’ve left that part out.”

It was not until an interview in 1999 that Blackmoore told police Hawken had told him he was involved.

Stevens suggested the comments were “payback” and that Hawken never made the comment.

In 2010 Blackmoore told police he did not know who murdered Angela, and that it might have been an unknown person.

“I had no idea if he’d actually done it. I had no idea,” he told Stevens.

“She had plenty of enemies.”

He agreed that Angela’s death made sorting out their affairs more complicated.

“She was more trouble dead than she was alive.”

David Peter Hawken was working as a debt collector associated with the Templars Motorcycle Club. Photo / George Heard

Earlier, in her opening remarks, Stevens told the jury that Hawken did not have any involvement in Blackmoore’s murder.

“The defence case is that David Hawken had no motive to kill Angela Blackmoore and he had nothing to gain from killing her and he had no power to order the killing.”

Powell murdered Blackmoore for his own satisfaction, Stevens argued, saying he “enjoys violence” and was depraved.

Wright-Meldrum’s lawyer, Stephanie Grieve KC, asked the jury to keep an open mind until they had heard all the evidence.

“Focus on whether the Crown has proven beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Powell is telling the truth and that she was there with him. Is his innocence credible and reliable or is he lying about her involvement?”

The trial continues.

Sam Sherwood is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers crime. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2022, and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.