Tāngarākau campground murder trial: Interview with accused played to jury, evidence concludes

The body of Adrian Humphreys was found at Bushlands Campground in Tāngarākau on May 7, 2022. He was allegedly killed for the keys to his car.

When a teenager was arrested for the murder of a man at a remote campground, he declared “I’m not going down for this … I can prove who did it.”

And that’s what Justice Williamson-Atkinson, 17, is currently trying to do as he defends charges of murder and burglary.

The teen has been accused of killing Adrian Humphreys at Bushlands Campground in Tāngarākau, eastern Taranaki, overnight on May 6, 2022.

The Crown claims Williamson-Atkinson, who was staying at the camp with Start Taranaki, a programme for troubled youth, took a knife from the communal kitchen and snuck into Humphreys’ camper to steal the keys to his car.

During the burglary, he stabbed the 57-year-old five times, it is alleged. Humphreys’ body was found 20m from his camper early on May 7, 2022.

But Williamson-Atkinson’s defence team maintain it was another teen from the youth programme who committed the act.

The trial at the High Court at New Plymouth is now in its third week and on Tuesday the Crown concluded its evidence and closed its case. The defence has elected not to call evidence.

Among the last of the Crown’s witnesses, Detective Constable Jon Collins, of New Plymouth, was called to speak about his role in the investigation and his arrest of Williamson-Atkinson.

On August 11 last year, Collins and other officers executed a warrant at the teen’s family home in Hastings around 7.45am.

They went into his bedroom where he was in bed with his girlfriend, Vampyre Hirini-Hooper. Collins told him he was under arrest for murder.

During the trip from his home to the Hastings police station, and while in the custody block, the teen made several comments rejecting assertions he had committed the crime.

“What evidence do you have,” he asked, Collins told the jury.

Williamson-Atkinson claimed the police would be “bummed out later down the track” when they “find out everything and who done it.”

“This is bullshit. I told you the story,” his comments continued.

“I’m not going down for this ... I can prove who did it.”

Soon after his arrest, the teen spoke with a lawyer and a communications assistant and was allowed to phone his mother and girlfriend.

Williamson-Atkinson, who had earlier been interviewed by police as a witness, then agreed to be interviewed again. That interview was recorded and played to the jury today.

Collins began by telling him the interview was an opportunity for the teen to share more about what he knew.

“Because I know there’s more you can tell me about the man being killed,” Collins told him.

He said Williamson-Atkinson’s DNA was found inside Humphreys’ camper and implored him to tell the “truth”.

The teen was focused on knowing how much evidence the police had relating to him.

He eventually stated he “wasn’t involved” but claimed the other youth came to his tent that night and asked him to help dispose of a knife.

Williamson-Atkinson said at the time he did not know what the knife had been used for and obliged by picking it up with his elbows, carrying it along the track that leads out of the campground and throwing it by a fence.

The only reason his DNA was in the camper was because he collected the knife, he told Collins.

He initially claimed to have taken only a “footstep” inside the camper but later said he walked in, tripped over a container, and took a look at Humphreys.

When Williamson-Atkinson named the other youth he claimed was responsible, he became concerned it would get back to the boy, who has name suppression.

Later in the interview, Collins revealed Williamson-Atkinson’s DNA had been found around the “stab holes” in Humphreys’ sleeping bag.

The teen suggested he may have touched the sleeping bag when he tripped.

He thought the blood discovered on his jersey might have come from him holding the knife, and when told a third teen from the programme informed police he had seen Williamson-Atkinson stealing a knife from the kitchen the night before Humphreys’ death, he vehemently denied it.

“I swear on my entire life that that’s bullshit.”

He claimed once police found the knife, it would stand up his version of events. The knife has never been found.

“When you find it and you see my prints aren’t on there then we’ll see whose story is true.”

Under cross-examination, Collins later said the teen who Williamson-Atkinson alleged committed the crime had not provided a statement or a DNA sample, despite extensive police efforts to obtain both.

Before Williamson-Atkinson’s arrest and during the police investigation, Collins was tasked with going to Start Taranaki to introduce himself to Williamson-Atkinson and another youth who was at the camp at the time of Humphreys’ death.

On May 25 last year, he met with the pair, who knew he was an officer, to build a rapport with them.

They played ping-pong and basketball together.

While Collins was there, the teens also underwent barbering training, which is part of the programme’s vocational offerings, and he was asked if he would like a haircut.

“I took that opportunity,” Collins told the court.

Williamson-Atkinson cut his hair, and he did a “very good” job, Collins recalled.

The Crown and defence will give their closing statements tomorrow.

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.