The body of Adrian Humphreys was found at Bushlands Campground in Tāngarākau in May last year.
A teenager who was on a programme for at-risk youth when he snuck into a man’s camper to steal his car keys and then stabbed him five times has been found guilty of murder.
Justice Williamson-Atkinson, 17, has been in the High Court at New Plymouth defending charges of murder and burglary in a trial that began on October 30.
The teen was charged following the death of Adrian Humphreys, whose body was found at Bushlands Campground in Tāngarākau, eastern Taranaki, on May 7, 2022.
After two days of deliberation, the jury indicated at 1.40pm today they were unable to reach a verdict.
But after Justice Francis Cooke encouraged them to persevere with the deliberation process, they advised at 4pm they had a verdict.
Williamson-Atkinson, dressed in the same well-fitted black suit and polished dress shoes he has worn for the duration of the trial, could be seen taking a deep breath as he stepped into the dock to hear the outcome.
As the foreperson delivered the unanimous verdicts of guilty to both the burglary and murder charges, the teen stood still, with his eyes fixed forward and his hands behind his back.
A couple of the jurors wept, and while the public gallery, comprising three of the teen’s whānau members, police officers, lawyers, and family and friends of Humphreys remained silent, Taresa Keatley, Humphreys’ sister who has travelled from the United Kingdom to attend the trial, could be seen overcome with emotion.
Following the verdicts, she hugged Detective Senior Sergeant Drew Bennett, who led the investigation, and thanked him.
Keatley later described her brother, 57, as a kind and loving person who lived life to the full.
In a statement, she praised Bennett, the police investigation team and the Crown “for their diligence in bringing the person responsible for Adrian’s death to court”.
“This has been an emotional and difficult 19 months for us, and although this outcome won’t bring Adrian back, I had to see this through for Adrian and our parents.”
Bennett acknowledged the verdict and hoped it would allow Humphreys’ family to close this chapter and begin to heal.
He said, also in a statement, that Keatley had represented her family with grace and dignity during such a harrowing ordeal.
“I would also like to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of the investigators and trial team that worked hard to see responsibility taken for Adrian’s death and support his family.”
Before discharging the jury, Justice Cooke, who declined an application by NZME to photograph Williamson-Atkinson, thanked the jurors for their service in what he described as a “sad case”.
“This is a really hard case, a really sad case, obviously for Adrian Humphreys and his family but for other reasons as well,” he said.
“My advice to you is to try and put it behind you as best as you can. It will stay with you for a while but do your best to put it behind you.”
Williamson-Atkinson was remanded back into custody ahead of his sentencing on March 22.
He was staying at Bushlands Campground with Start Taranaki, a programme for troubled youths run in partnership with Oranga Tamariki, at the time of the murder.
While Start Taranaki declined a request for an interview, deputy CEO of Oranga Tamariki Mike Bush acknowledged the guilty verdict.
“Oranga Tamariki would like to firstly recognise the ongoing pain and loss to the whānau of Adrian Humphreys following his death,” he said in a statement to NZME.
“This was a horrific event and will have a lasting impact on not only his whānau but also the other vulnerable young people and adults who were at the campground.
“Our thoughts are with those who knew and loved Mr Humphreys.”
While questions were put to Oranga Tamariki about the programmes’ policies and procedures, Bush said no further comment would be made until after Williamson-Atkinson had been sentenced.
During the trial, it was heard the Hastings teen had taken a knife from the communal kitchen at the campground and snuck out of his tent during the night.
He wanted to leave the campground but needed a car so he broke into Humphrey’s camper to steal his keys and, during the burglary, repeatedly stabbed him.
Humphreys had arrived at Bushlands, located along the Forgotten World Highway, on May 6, 2022.
The outdoor enthusiast was a former Royal Air Force serviceman from the United Kingdom.
At the time of his death, he lived in Rotorua where he worked at Southern Cross Healthcare as an anaesthetic technician.
He had stayed at Bushlands Campground only weeks before and was excited to be returning with the camper trailer he had just bought.
Within hours of his arrival, three Start Taranaki youth workers arrived at the camp with Williamson-Atkinson and two other teens.
The Kaponga-based organisation provides an eight-week programme to at-risk youth involving time spent in the bush, the beach, a marae, and in a residential space learning skills such as barbering.
It was heard in evidence that the youth workers generally slept in the same tents as the teens and removed knives from kitchens at any site the programme visited. But that did not happen on this trip.
Early the following morning, two of the youth workers discovered Humphreys’ body. He was lying face down on the ground, about 20 metres from his camper.
Williamson-Atkinson’s DNA had been found around the cut holes in the sleeping bag Humphreys was in when he was stabbed, and Humphreys’ blood was found on the sleeve of the teen’s jersey.
Evidence was also heard that during a conversation with a relative, Williamson-Atkinson confessed to having “killed someone”.
But defence lawyer Nicola Graham had maintained it was another teen on the programme who had killed Humphreys.
She highlighted to the jury that the relative on the receiving end of the confession admitted he could have misunderstood what he was told.
She also suggested cross-contamination could be the reason her client’s DNA was found on the sleeping bag, and the blood may have transferred onto his sweatshirt when he went into the camper after the stabbing.
Williamson-Atkinson told police he had gone into the camper after the other teen stabbed Humphreys and taken the knife away for him. He said the other teen had planned to steal Humphreys’ car keys.
There was no forensic evidence that linked the other teen, who has refused to provide police with a DNA sample and a statement, to the stabbing.
During Justice Cooke’s summation of the case yesterday, he asked the jury to apply its collective common sense to the evidence that had been heard.
He said the murder charge could be proven three ways - if the jury was sure Williamson-Atkinson was the principal offender, if they were sure the other teen killed Humphreys and Williamson-Atkinson was a party to the offending, or if they were unsure which of the two murdered Humphreys but were sure it was either of them who did it.
The other teen has permanent name suppression and has not been charged in relation to Humphreys’ death.
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.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.