Tāngarākau campground murder trial: Camp managers give evidence in death of Adrian Humphreys

The body of Adrian Humphreys was found at a remote Taranaki campsite on May 7, 2022. Photo / Supplied

The manager of a remote campground that has been hosting an at-risk youth programme for years says he was usually warned by the group’s mentors if the teens were high-risk and if knives needed to be removed from the communal kitchen.

James Herbert, managing director of Bushlands Campground in Tāngarākau, eastern Taranaki, also said the mentors of programme Start Taranaki would typically sleep in the same cabin or tent as the teens.

But on May 6 last year, when a Start Taranaki group arrived at the campground for the night, three mentors shared one large tent while the three teen participants each had a pup tent.

The Crown now alleges that one of the teens, Justice Williamson-Atkinson, took a knife from the camp’s kitchen and during the night he snuck out of his tent and killed a fellow camper.

That man, 57-year-old Adrian Humphreys, was stabbed five times and found dead the following morning, around 20 metres from his camper trailer.

Williamson-Atkinson, of Hastings, is defending charges of burglary and murder in a trial that began on Monday in the High Court at New Plymouth before Justice Francis Cooke.

The Crown alleges the 17-year-old wanted to leave the campground so he broke into Humphreys’ camper to steal the keys to his car and during the burglary he stabbed him.

But Williamson-Atkinson’s defence team claim it was another of the programme’s teen participants who had committed the act.

On Wednesday, Herbert, who lives on-site, told the court he was woken by a “very loud fast banging” at his door around 7am on May 7 last year.

He didn’t recognise the man, who had a “surprised, shocked” look on his face, but now knows it was one of the programme’s mentors.

“There’s someone who’s been stabbed and he’s dead in your camp,” he told Herbert.

Two of the mentors had found Humphreys’ body only moments earlier as they made their way to the campground’s kitchen.

Herbert said in the past three decades the campground, situated along the Forgotten World Highway, had not even suffered a theft, so initially he thought the deceased may have been drunk and fallen over.

But when he arrived at the body, he recognised it as Humphreys and saw blood on the side of his torso.

Herbert immediately woke his cousin, a police sergeant from Auckland who was visiting the campground, and the pair proceeded to secure the scene and alert the police.

During his evidence, Herbert said Start Taranaki, a Kaponga-based organisation, had been taking teens to Bushlands Campground for around five years and there had not been any previous issues.

While he did not know the mentors who were on the May 6 trip last year, he was very familiar with past mentors.

Adrian Humphreys was allegedly killed for his car, pictured at a petrol station the day before he died.

“We knew them very well, we had a good relationship. They would call us beforehand and say ‘Hey, these guys are no problem’ or they would ring and say ‘These guys are high-risk, can you remove knives from the kitchen, can you make sure things are locked’.

“They always slept in the cabins or the tents with the boys.”

While Herbert said this time it was “a different set-up”, the campground had not formally communicated its expectations to the programme.

Herbert’s sister, Johanna Herbert, who also lives on-site, echoed some of her brother’s testimony concerning the youth organisation’s visit.

She said the mentors usually slept alongside the teens and there was an initial arrangement that all aerosols and any “sharp objects” would be removed, and all vehicles would be locked.

The mentors would also advise if there was a teen they were concerned about, or if they would be “no bother at all”.

There was no such conversation with the programme’s staff at the outset of last year’s trip, she said.

“The general vibe of their arrival was different.”

Johanna was moved to tears when she recalled greeting Humphreys, an outdoor enthusiast from Rotorua, on his arrival at the campground on the day before his death.

He had stayed only weeks prior and was excited to be returning with the camper trailer he had just bought.

She invited him to attend a pot-luck dinner at her sister’s home on the other side of the valley that night, which he did.

Johanna also told him the youth programme would be staying at the campground and said there was nothing to be worried about as the teens were well-supervised.

She did warn him to remove any “temptations”, though.

“Then I just said ‘You can get on and enjoy the rest of your holiday’. And I really meant it.

“I said there’s really no cause for alarm.”

Originally from the United Kingdom, Humphreys was an anaesthetic technician who worked at Southern Cross Healthcare in Rotorua.

Johanna described him as “a really sweet man”.

Immediately following his death, she temporarily closed the campground.

“I was in complete horror. It’s a horror story. I didn’t want any campers turning up.”

The trial, set down for four weeks, continues on Thursday.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.