Ex-truckie jailed for double murder

Anthony Paul Doyle killed his victims at Wairoa River last October. Picture / Mark McKeown

A man who blasted a couple to death with a shotgun after a dispute over a drug debt was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 19 years in the High Court at Rotorua today.

Anthony Paul Doyle, 41, a former truck driver from Rotorua, pleaded guilty in June to murdering Michael (Mikaere) Douglas O'Sullivan, 42, and his partner, Toni-Anne Nathan, 39, under the Wairoa River bridge at Te Puna near Tauranga last October 31.

The court had been told that all three were drug dealers and methamphetamine users, with Doyle's heavy "P" addiction making him paranoid.

The victims owed Doyle $5000 and non-payment of the debt had caused "extreme animosity" between the two parties.

The trio were to meet at the Wairoa bridge about 3am on October 31 to do a deal that settled the debt. Instead Doyle, armed with a sawn-off double barrel shotgun, shot Mr O'Sullivan at close range and then shot Ms Nathan when she tried to drive away.

- NZPA