Court told accused convinced family their father was murdered

File photo / Greg Bowker

A 55-year-old Hutt Valley man faces a jail term when he appears for sentence next year after he admitted sending anonymous letters which falsely convinced a family their father had been murdered in his rest home.

Peter Glen, 88, died of natural causes in March last year, but five weeks later his five children began receiving letters claiming a mentally impaired resident smothered their father with a pillow, The Dominion Post reported.

"I saw him come out of your daddy's room the morning he died with a pillow in his hand and a crazed look on his face. He really scares me. You must do something before he kills someone else," one letter said.

On December 23 last year the family also received a Christmas card from the supposed killer saying "Finishing off your pappy with his own pillow was so much fun".

The man responsible for the letters, who has name suppression, admitted in Upper Hutt District Court yesterday to sending them and pleaded guilty to two charges of causing wasteful deployment of police resources after police went on an 18 month search for the supposed killer.

Police began an investigation into the murder claims, including considering exhuming the body, before a match in handwriting led to the man's arrest.

The family believe the letters were designed to punish Mr Glen's son who was involved in sacking the man from his job as a Hutt Hospital storeman in August 2006.

He will be sentenced early next year.

- NZPA