Firefighters battled a large blaze at the East Auckland house. Video / Michael Rowse
Auckland personal trainer Wiremu Arapo was killed by his aggrieved former friend and boxing pupil and a flatmate behind on the rent, the Crown has claimed.
The pair allegedly set fire to Arapo’s home to destroy the evidence of killing, staging the scene to make it look like cannabis smoking gone awry.
They then pretended to try to battle their way through flames back into the Cockle Bay home as part of a charade to deceive witnesses as to their true role, the Crown alleges.
Sean Andrew Hayde and Gregory David Hart are on trial in the Auckland High Court jointly charged with murdering Arapo, 27, who ran a personal training business from the garage of the Minerva Terrace home, on October 20, 2020.
They are also both charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by setting fire to the home.
Hayde is charged with strangling, assaulting and threatening to kill his former partner, weeks before allegedly killing Arapo. The men have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In his opening address on Monday, Crown prosecutor Ned Fletcher set the scene for the jury of a tangled web of personal grudges and infidelities resembling a suburban East Auckland soap opera.
“This is a case about relationships, relationships gone wrong, and their snowballing effects,” Fletcher said.
Relationships between Arapo, his layabout flatmate Hart, the volatile Hayde and two women continued to worsen until the tensions reached their crescendo with an eruption of violence on October 20, the Crown claims.
Fletcher said Arapo, a former soldier, was a well-liked and athletic young man with much to look forward to.
Sean Hayde is standing trial at the Auckland High Court accused of the murder of Wiremu Arapo in Cockle Bay, whose body was found after a house fire. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Hayde’s defence is that Hart killed Arapo.
His lawyers will claim his former partner concocted the domestic violence allegations because she was unhappy he was taking up with a new partner.
Hart’s defence is that Hayde killed Arapo.
His lawyers will claim Hayde was the dominant figure in the friendship, who now wants to blame his friend for the killing.
Arapo first met Hayde in 2019. Arapo and his fiancee worked together at a gym in Highland Park, Fletcher said.
Hayde signed up for boxing classes and came to be taught by Arapo.
At the time, Hayde was in a relationship with the woman he is charged with assaulting, Fletcher said.
Gregory Hart in the dock on the first day of his trial. Photo / Jason Oxenham
In 2020, as the first Covid lockdown was ending, Arapo lost his job at the gym.
He and his fiancee moved into the Minvera Tce rental, a property with a sprawling section and large garage, perfect for a gym.
Arapo started a personal training business and began to take clients at the property, including Hayde, who continued his boxing lessons in the shed, Fletcher said.
It was through Hayde he met Hart. The pair had known each other for 20 years, since they were 12 or 13.
Arapo and Hart found common ground. They had both served in the army in their younger years, Fletcher said.
When Arapo and his fiancee’s flatmate moved out in June 2020, they offered one end of the house to Hart, who accepted and moved in.
But the relationship between Arapo and Hart quickly soured, Fletcher said.
By early August he was already having to remonstrate with Hart about unpaid rent and bills and lax cleaning, it is alleged.
Crown prosecutor Ned Fletcher said the case against Hart and Hayde is about relationships, and how they soured before the alleged eruption of violence and fire. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Hart would sleep until noon. Arapo repeatedly had to ask him to pull his weight, Fletcher said.
While all this was going on, a budding romance was brewing between a woman Arapo had introduced to Hayde, despite Hayde being in a relationship, it is alleged.
Hayde and his then-partner had moved into a flat on Bucklands Beach Rd, about 10 minutes up the road from the Minerva Tce property.
In mid-August 2020, things began to grow more serious between Hayde and Arapo’s female friend. Initially, Arapo was happy to have played the role of matchmaker.
Hayde’s partner began to suspect something was going on and eventually, on August 29, he admitted he was sleeping with the other woman.
After the admission, Hayde began to goad his partner with details of the affair and went on to assault and strangle her, Fletcher alleged.
The Crown case is he also threatened to set fire to the home and stop her leaving.
Hayde was arrested, charged and bailed for allegedly assaulting and strangling his partner.
The Cockle Bay house after it was engulfed by a fire. Photo / Michael Craig
As August moved into September and Arapo got word of the charges, he began to take a dim view of Hayde’s new relationship with his friend, Fletcher alleged.
Meanwhile, Hayde was growing frustrated at his how his new partner was continuing to communicate with Arapo.
Hayde messaged Hart urging him to move out so he could exact revenge on Arapo for his perceived transgressions against the pair, saying “bro the day you get your bond back I’ll actually kick his teeth out [sic]”, the Crown alleges.
On October 19, the day before the alleged murder, Arapo was aggrieved to see Hart had bought a bottle of gin and a pack of cigarettes after claiming he did not have enough money to pay the power bill, Fletcher said.
That night, Arapo drank the bottle of gin and woke the next day nursing a hangover, the Crown claims.
On the afternoon of October 20, CCTV captured Hayde’s car travelling to the property at Minerva Tce.
Shortly before 6pm, neighbours heard the sound of a fight coming from the property and someone yelling “I told you last night, mate”. They heard a man banging into French doors as if he was being assaulted, Fletcher said.
Soon after, they saw Hayde and Hart attempting to break into the home, as part of what Fletcher alleged was their ruse to make it look like they were trying to save Arapo.
Justice Geoffrey Venning presidiing over the trial. Photo / Jason Oxenham
When firefighters discovered his body, they noticed it was lying in the lounge with his feet by the door and his head pointing towards the origin of the fire. The firefighters thought that would be unusual if he had been attempting to flee.
A post mortem examination of Arapo’s badly burned body concluded he had died via multiple instances of blunt force trauma, rather than from the effects of the fire.
There were only trace amounts of soot in his trachea. Much more would be expected if he was still breathing when the fire was raging.
There was also no carbon monoxide in his blood indicating smoke inhalation.
Paul Borich KC is representing Hart, alongside Jonathan Hudson. Photo / Jason Oxenham
In addition, parts of the inside of his skull were burned, indicating his head was fractured before the fire started. The hyoid bone in his neck was broken, a rare fracture usually only seen in strangulations and hangings due to its mobility, the jury heard.
Fletcher said Hayde and Hart were taken to Middlemore Hospital, where they made statements to police.
They were not arrested until December 8. Before he was charged, Hart told his former partner Hayde “just lost it”, Fletcher alleged. He is also alleged to have said Hayde and Arapo never liked each other.
Emma Priest, one of Hayde’s lawyers alongside Julie-Anne Kincade KC, said her client’s former partner embellished the allegations because she was upset about the new relationship.
Hayde had no part in Arapo’s death, Priest said.
“It was Mr Hart who killed him,” she said.
As for the fire, the key issue was whether it was deliberately lit at all, or whether it was caused by candles burning in the lounge, she said.
Jonathan Hudson, acting for Hart with Paul Borich KC, said his client did not kill Arapo.
“The sole person responsible for the murder is Sean Hayde,” Hudson said.
“Sean was the dominant figure in an awkward friendship that seemed to centre around smoking cannabis and drinking cheap wine from the supermarket.”
The Crown will call about 60 witnesses during the trial, expected to last up to five weeks, before the defence opens their case.
The trial continues.
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
