Rebecca Wright-Meldrum and David Hawken and deny murdering Angela Blackmoore (inset) and are standing trial at the High Court in Christchurch. Photo / George Heard
The partner of murdered pregnant mother Angela Blackmoore has today spoken about the grisly discovery of her bloodied, lifeless body on the kitchen floor 28 years ago.
The brutal murder of Angela Maree Blackmoore, 21, in her Christchurch home on August 17, 1995, while her 2-year-old son slept in the next room, has long been one of New Zealand’s most infamous cold-case murders.
At the High Court in Christchurch, a murder trial of former debt collector David Hawken, 50, and ex-stripper Rebecca Wright-Meldrum, 51, has started this week.
They deny any part in Blackmoore’s death and have pleaded not guilty.
For 25 years the case went unsolved before police suddenly received fresh information and Jeremy Crinis James Powell was arrested in 2019.
He later pleaded guilty and was jailed for at least 10 years for bludgeoning and stabbing Blackmoore 39 times in what a judge called a “dreadful and monstrous killing”.
Powell said the murder was organised by others and that he was offered $10,000 for the killing.
He will prove a key Crown witness during the trial, the jury has been told.
The Crown outlined its case against the pair this morning, alleging that Hawken ordered Powell to carry out the hit, which would free up a property deal, while Wright-Meldrum, a close friendof Blackmoore, helped him gain entry to her house.
This afternoon, Blackmoore’s partner Laurie Anderson gave evidence, saying how they had started a relationship in January 1995, which started out as “friends with benefits”.
He described Blackmoore, who had earlier been involved in the adult entertainment industry, had come with “a lot of emotional baggage”, with her “chequered past” meaning she hadn’t had many positive experiences with men.
However, they had lived together all year and had become close partners, becoming engaged to be married and Blackmoore nine weeks pregnant.
Anderson spoke about being called into work that night, as a librarian at the University of Canterbury, leaving Blackmoore home alone for the first time with her young son asleep.
The boarder who usually stayed there was away with work.
A pizza was delivered about 8.50pm and by around 9.45pm she was not answering the phone to Anderson’s mother who had rung to discuss the latest episode of Australian TV police drama show, Blue Heelers.
It’s alleged that Wright-Meldrum got her safety-conscious friend Blackmoore to open the door before Powell, armed with a bat and a large knife hidden in his trenchcoat, attacked and brutally killed her.
Anderson came home from work later that night to find her dead.
He told the court about coming home, kicking his shoes off and grabbing a piece of pizza from the box in the lounge.
The TV was on, the lights were on in kitchen/dining room, but nothing seemed out of ordinary until he walked into the kitchen and saw her lying on her back with “blood everywhere”.
His first reaction, he told the court, was to get her help and rushed to phone 111.
In a “state of shock”, he checked to see if she was still alive and “pushed her tummy” to see if there was any response.
“Things were just racing through my mind,” Anderson said.
He then phoned his mother to come and pick up the still-sleeping child while an ambulance and police rushed to the scene.
This morning, prosecutor Mitchell McClenaghan outlined the Crown case against Hawken and Wright-Meldrum.
Sometime in the early 1990s, Blackmoore met Wright-Meldrum, the court heard.
They ended up close friends, working in the adult industry, living together and developing a sexual relationship.
In the middle of 1992, they moved into a Worcester St house and lived with William Blackmoore, whom Angela started seeing.
She soon fell pregnant and the couple married in 1993.
Although the marriage was short-lived - they separated after about 16 months – they bought two properties together: an empty section on Ferry Rd and a house on Cashel St where they ended up living.
They had mortgages of just over $65,000, the court heard, and after the split, the Blackmoores began arguing over child custody and the properties and called in lawyers.
The mortgage was not being paid and fell into arrears, the court heard.
After Angela Blackmoore moved out of Cashel St, an old childhood friend of William Blackmoore’s - David Hawken – moved in.
He had moved from Hamilton and was working in Christchurch as a debt collector and, the court heard, had become an associated of the Templars MC gang.
He ran his debt collection business from the Cashel St front room.
The Crown alleged that from “early on” Hawken had an eye on the financial benefit of the two properties, wanting to use them and his own assets to secure loans for future business ventures.
McClenaghan claimed that Hawken had been in talks with a property developer to buy land at Moncks Spur, Redcliffs, for a multi-million dollar development, while also looking to set up a telecommunications business.
In the meantime, Angela Blackmoore had started seeing Laurie Anderson, and had moved in with him at his Vancouver Cres house.
He was a welcome change, the court heard, offering her stability and a way out of a troubled lifestyle.
Hawken had started helping with the matrimonial property problems, the court heard, and was talking directly with the bank over mortgage arrears. He also allegedly made a proposal to sell Ferry Rd to sort out the issues.
It’s alleged that Hawken also toldthe bank that he was expecting a large ACC payout for a back injury and that he intended to take over the mortgage from Angela Blackmoore and become co-mortgager with William Blackmoore.
He also visited Angela Blackmoore at Vancouver Cres to get her to sign documents but it’s not known if she did, the court heard.
But by then, the Crown says, Hawken was in debt, being pursued for bankruptcy, and his ACC claim was declined.
So he “hatched a plan” and organised to have Angela Blackmoore killed, the Crown alleges.
He spoke to Wright-Meldrum and Powell, who had worked for his debt collection business, about carrying out the murder on his behalf, the Crown said, offering $10,000 for the job.
There were allegedly several meetings between the three – and on August 17, Wright-Meldrum and Powell intended to go through with the plan but “Powell on this occasion got cold feet and could not go through with it”, the Crown claimed.
Hawken was not impressed, the Crown said, and he threatened to kill Powell, Wright-Meldrum and their families if they did not follow through with the plan.
It was a threat that Powell took seriously, allegedly claiming that Hawken had boasted to him that he was behind several unsolved murders.
Less than a week after her death, the Crown claims that Hawken was actively taking steps to use the Blackmoore properties as help for his future development plans.
A massive police investigation called Operation Vancouver was launched and Hawken and Wright-Meldrum were interviewed at the time but denied any involvement.
The case went unsolved for more than two decades before Powell was arrested in 2019 after police offered a then-record $100,000 reward.
Wright-Meldrum’s defence counsel Stephanie Grieve KC suggested to the jury that the key issue for them was whether Powell is “credible and reliable” when he says Wright-Meldrum was with him when he murdered Blackmoore.
Grieve also urged the jury to put aside any feelings of sympathy or prejudice, including moral judgement when hearing of a world “which you may not be familiar with”.
The trial will hear that Wright-Meldrum was a stripper and a dancer in strip clubs and there will be evidence of people using drugs and having gang connections.
Anne Stevens KC, defence counsel for Hawken, said he had nothing to do with Blackmoore’s murder and that he had “no wish that she die”.
“The defence case is that Jeremy Powell did not fulfil an order from David Hawken to kill Angela Blackmoore,” Stevens said.
Powell’s killing has “all the hallmarks” of him suffering a psychotic episode, the lawyer said, showing that he was not only a murderer but a liar.
Hawken had no motive, no money and no power to order a murder, his defence team say.
The defence case, Stevens said, is that Blackmoore’s death was contrary to Hawken’s interests and to his objective of avoiding a mortagee sale of the Cashel St property where he lived.
The four-week trial before Justice Cameron Mander continues tomorrow with Anderson still giving evidence.