Christchurch, Angela Blackmoore cold case murder case: New trial date fixed after first trial was aborted

David Hawken and Rebecca Wright-Meldrum have appeared at the High Court in Christchurch charged with the murder of Angela Blackmoore (inset) in 1995.

A new trial for two people accused of murdering a Christchurch mother in 1995 has today been scheduled to begin in November.

Former debt collector David Hawken, 50, and ex-stripper Rebecca Wright-Meldrum, 51, had denied murdering Angela Blackmoore on August 17, 1995, and were standing trial at the High Court in Christchurch earlier this month when it was abandoned in its second week.

After hearing from 18 witnesses, the jury was suddenly told by Justice Cameron Mander that the trial had been aborted and they were free to go.

“This morning, I made the decision, after having heard from the counsel, to abort this trial,” the judge said at the time.

“I can’t go into the details with you as to why this has arisen except to broadly indicate that material has come to hand which counsel needs the opportunity to review.”

The decision to abort the trial came in the “interests of justice”, the jury was told.

This morning, at a pre-trial callover hearing before Justice Cameron Mander a new five-week trial was confirmed to begin on November 6.

Hawken and Wright-Meldrum were both remanded on existing bail conditions to a pre-trial callover hearing on October 20.

For 25 years the case went unsolved before police suddenly received fresh information in 2019 and Jeremy Crinis James Powell was arrested.

He pleaded guilty and was jailed for at least 10 years for bludgeoning and stabbing Blackmoore 39 times.

During the trial, the Crown had alleged that Hawken ordered Powell – who was due to be a key Crown witness in the case - to carry out the hit, offering to pay $10,000, while Wright-Meldrum, a close friend and ex-lover of Blackmoore, helped him gain entry to her house.

It was alleged that Hawken wanted Blackmoore out of the way so he could profit from a property deal.