Red Fox Tavern killers jailed for life
Two men who murdered Red Fox Tavern publican Chris Bush ‘‘for no good reason’’ have been jailed for life, more than thirty years after the killing.
The 43-year-old father of two was shot dead at the pub in Maramarua, north Waikato, on October 24, 1987.
Thirty years later, in August 2017, Mark Joseph Hoggart, 60, and another man, who has interim name suppression, were arrested and charged with murder and aggravated robbery.
The pair maintained their innocence and claimed police had arrested the wrong men. But a jury did not believe them.
Yesterday, at the High Court at Auckland, Justice Mark Woolford sentenced the pair to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years.
In a victim impact statement, Bush’s widow Gaye Bush said she had her whole life to look forward to with her husband and that was taken away when he was killed.
The once-close family have since become estranged, the bar staff were left traumatised and despite giving up hope of a conviction, there was now a sense of relief and closure.
They hoped Maramarua wouldn’t always be known as the town where an unsolved murder happened.
Addressing the court, Crown prosecutor Anna Devathasan said victim impact statements reminded the court of the obvious – that someone was killed for no good reason – and the events of that night had shattered the lives of his family and community.
Justice Woolford said the statements made for harrowing reading and the victims had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, had withdrawn from society and had suffered recurring nightmares.
The unnamed defendant’s lawyer Chris Stevenson said his client maintained his innocence and indicated he would be appealing the conviction.
Hoggart’s lawyer Craig Tuck said this was a highly unusual case and his client had a far less culpable role in the offending. He said it would be manifestly unjust to sentence Hoggart to life imprisonment.
The court heard the pair were considered a high-risk of reoffending.
In March, after a seven-week trial, a jury returned a unanimous verdict, finding the pair guilty of the offending.
The court heard from bar staff who were at the tavern when the Bush was shot dead.
The Crown said the unnamed defendant shot and killed Bush, while Hoggart helped subdue bar staff, tying them up before the pair fled with money and cheques worth $36,349.
In the months before the shooting, the defendants had been released from prison with very little money. But associates told the court the unnamed defendant spoke about doing an ‘‘earn up North’’ and a ‘‘job’’ when he got out of prison.
October 24, 1987
Around 11.30pm on the night of the robbery, Bush was counting the takings while bar staff Sherryn Soppet, Bill Wilson and Stephanie Prisk were having a drink, when two heavily disguised men entered the pub.
‘‘This is an armed hold-up,’’ the unnamed defendant is said to have yelled as he entered. Bush got up off his chair and hurled a half pint glass at the man but missed, prompting the unnamed defendant to open fire.
‘‘Christopher Bush stood no chance,’’ Crown solicitor Natalie Walker said.
After he was shot, the pair ordered the bar staff to get on the floor face down before removing the safe keys from Bush’s pocket.
They fled and in the weeks that followed, were seen by associates with ‘‘flash-looking’’ motorbikes, the court heard.
The pair were interviewed by police in January 1988 after an associate, Phillip Dunbier, nominated the pair as suspects, on Christmas Eve in 1987.
When the unnamed defendant was spoken to by officers, he gave various accounts of his whereabouts.
He admitted dumping a sawn-off shotgun in the seam fearing officers would be after him as he had recently been released from prison for a similar armed robbery in Auckland.
But he denied any involvement in the killing.
Charlie Ross, the man’s co-offender in the Auckland aggravated robbery, gave the unnamed defendant the sawnoff shotgun the Crown claims was used to murder Bush, when they met up after he was released from prison.
‘‘It doesn’t make sense [the defendant] would dispose of a shotgun that wasn’t the murder weapon,’’ Walker told the jury.
Hoggart was also spoken to by police investigating the case but denied being at the Red Fox Tavern.