Wife-killer in $1.4m luxury hideaway

The mansion is owned by Greg Meads' father. Photo / Alan Gibson

Horseracing identity Greg Meads enjoyed his final months of freedom in a plush beachfront Bay of Plenty home with another woman before he was found guilty of murdering his second wife.

He told a neighbour not to worry about occasionally seeing police cars in his driveway, and said he was not a murderer, a source told the Herald.

A jury took three hours on Tuesday to find Meads, 55, guilty of murdering his wife, 42-year-old Helen Meads, in September last year.

Before the murder trial, the Herald understands, Meads was given bail, and was living at his parents' Te Puna home near Tauranga.

He later moved into a three-storey beachfront home at Mt Maunganui, which his father, Howard Meads, bought this year for $1.4 million.

The house - next to another million-dollar-plus home up a long driveway - overlooks a white, sandy beach and the sea.

Neighbours said Meads lived there with a young woman who was not his daughter.

The Herald visited Meads' parents in Te Puna but they declined requests to be interviewed.

A source said Meads approached a neighbour before he moved in to allay concerns they might have about seeing police officers visiting the house for bail checks.

"He said 'it's just a formality' and then he said 'don't worry, you're not living next door to a murderer'," said the source.

More details emerged yesterday of violence Meads inflicted on his wife.

Helen Meads' father, David White, said he and his wife Pam had long worried for their daughter's safety, and had pleaded with her several times to leave him.

Mr White said Meads had occasionally hit Helen with a broom handle.

But the most severe beating he inflicted on her happened about August 2008, when he became convinced she was having an affair with a Matamata pony club member after reading a text message on her cellphone.

"He broke her nose, there was bleeding from her ears, he crushed her larynx, he did a real number on her face ... there was bruising everywhere."