A fly-through of the fire damage was shown to the jury during the trial of Gregory Hart and Sean Hayde, accused of killing Wiremu Arapo on October 20, 2020. Video / NZ Police
A former soldier found guilty alongside his childhood friend of helping to kill his flatmate before burning down their Auckland home to destroy the evidence has been jailed for more than 11 years.
Childhood friends Gregory Hart and Sean Hayde, both 35, were both found responsible by a jury for killing personal trainer Wiremu Arapo, whose badly burned body was found in his home in Cockle Bay, East Auckland, on October 20, 2020.
They blamed each other at their trial, each trying to pin sole responsibility for the killing on the other man. But the jury was not convinced by either man’s version of events.
After a 3½-week trial in the High Court at Auckland, the jury found Hayde guilty of murder but Hart guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter on October 6.
Both were also found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by setting the Minerva Tce home alight.
Hart appeared for sentence before Justice Geoffrey Venning this morning. Hayde will be sentenced for murder on February 29.
Gregory Hart was found guilty of the manslaughter of Wiremu Arapo. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Sean Hayde claimed his co-accused Gregory Hart was solely responsible for killing Wiremu Arapo. The jury did not believe him and found him guilty of murder. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Arapo’s mother, Ani Sawers, delivered a victim impact statement at the start of the sentencing.
She told Hart he could have done something to stop the killing of her son.
“Wiremu was looking forward to his future, travelling and becoming a father one day,” Sawers said.
In the days after the killing, Hart spoke to the family at the Minerva Tce home where Arapo died, casting the fire as an accident.
“You could have told us on the driveway the truth of what happened,” Sawers said. “You lied to us.”
Arapo had a fiancee and the trial heard they were looking forward to moving to the North Shore, getting married and starting a family.
His fiancee, who did not want to be named, told the court in a victim impact statement read by a detective of her three-year wait for answers about what happened to Arapo, between the men being charged in December 2020 and the trial earlier this year.
The woman, a sailor in the Royal New Zealand Navy, described the trauma of having to attend a navy firefighting course soon after Arapo’s death.
She was at basic training in Devonport when the fire happened and she told the court of her guilt.
“I felt that I’d failed him because I wasn’t there that day.”
Paul Borich KC represented Hart, along with Jonathan Hudson. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“He did not deserve to lose his life in such a cruel, relentless and violent way. It breaks my heart to imagine his pain and fear. I haven’t been able to stop thinking of this.”
Crown prosecutor Aysser Al-Janabi sought a starting point of nine years in prison on the manslaughter charge. Evidence from neighbours showed the assault was prolonged and began soon after the men arrived at the flat, she said.
Arapo was vulnerable, taken by surprise and outnumbered in his own home.
She argued the charge of perverting the course of justice should generate the maximum possible increase of six years to the sentence, given the horrific damage to Arapo’s body from the fire and the damage to the scene. The Crown also sought a minimum period of imprisonment of at least half the sentence.
Al-Janabi said only a small discount of six months’ imprisonment should be imposed for his time spent on electronically monitored bail.
Jonathan Hudson, acting for Hart alongside Paul Borich KC, sought discounts for the time Hart spent on electronically monitored bail and for previous good character.
Hudson argued that Hart had reconnected with Hayde, a more experienced criminal and violent offender, after his discharge from the army due to injury.
“To some extent, he’s fallen under his influence,” Hudson said.
Justice Venning told Hart he rejected his evidence, as did the jury, that he was not involved in the assault and found there was a degree of planning in the attack.
But while he helped with the attack and agreed to participate, Hart lacked his friend’s murderous intent and did not know Hayde would go on to kill Arapo, the judge said. After he was bailed, he told a group of family friends that “Sean just lost it”, the jury heard.
Justice Venning said he viewed Hart’s offending as particularly serious. His involvement stemmed from a sense of anger towards Arapo, who had tried to help him.
The judge adopted a starting point of nine years for manslaughter, increased by 5½ years for perverting the course of justice.
“As you continue to deny your offending, I can give you no credit for remorse,” he said. However, he allowed a discount of 5 per cent for Hart’s mental health issues and the challenges he faced since his release from the army, and a further 5 per cent for the time spent on electronically monitored bail.
He imposed a final sentence of 11 years and four months, with a five-year sentence for perverting justice to be served concurrently. He did not impose a minimum period of imprisonment.
During the trial, Hart was cast by the Crown as a depressive layabout, who spent much of the day sleeping and the remainder drinking or gaming. He resented what he described in messages to Hayde as Arapo’s “bullshit chats” urging him to sort his life out and pay the bills.
Meanwhile, Hayde – Hart’s mate since the third form – was jealous of what he perceived to be Arapo’s continuing closeness with his new flame, Jenifer McManus, and what he viewed as attempts to interfere in their relationship.
Hart’s lawyer Borich described the situation as a lethal triangle.
On October 20, 2020, four bottles of cheap supermarket wine were added to the simmering mixture of resentment and jealousy and the situation came to a boil.
Jurors were shown this computer-augmented fly-through of the Minerva Tce rental in Cockle Bay where Wiremu Arapo's body was found after a fire. Photo Supplied / NZ Police
After a Tuesday afternoon spent drinking at Hayde’s flat, the pair drove to the flat from which Arapo had recently given Hart notice to leave.
Arapo, who was once Hayde’s boxing tutor, was beaten to death.
His body was left in the rental to be consumed by the fire.
Hayde’s version of events described Hart telling Arapo, a fellow army veteran, “Goodbye brother” before stabbing him in the neck.
His story was skewered by the prosecution and Hart’s defence team as something out of an overwritten movie script.
Hart’s simpler version had Hayde kicking Arapo to death.
As a result, when the jury retired, it had three versions of Arapo’s death to weigh.
The Crown said both men went to Minerva Tce to give Arapo, at the very least, a serious beating and both men killed him before setting the home alight in a bungled scheme to destroy the evidence.
Each had a clear motive to kill Arapo, the prosecution said.
“This is a case about relationships, relationships gone wrong, and their snowballing effects,” Crown prosecutor Ned Fletcher said.
Hayde had a blossoming relationship with Jenifer McManus, a friend of Arapo. Hayde’s relationship with her began as an affair while he was still with the woman he was charged with attacking.
Hayde was jealous of Arapo’s continued closeness with her, Crown prosecutor Ned Fletcher said.
Key to both the Crown’s and Hart’s cases was a threat made by Hayde to his former partner seven weeks before Arapo’s death.
The woman said he threatened to kill her and burn down her house – the very thing the Crown and Borich said came to pass on October 20.
“If Sean Hayde is telling you the truth, he would have to be the victim of the cruellest coincidence in history,” Borich said.
Detective Inspector Warrick Adkin, of Counties Manukau CIB, paid tribute to the strength of Arapo’s family and said police would comment further once Hayde was sentenced.
“Today’s sentence is another step in the process for Wiremu Arapo’s whānau.
