Gun went off as detectives tried to arrest a cornered Hallett
HEMI TAHU grew up without a father – but he never knew until two years ago that it was because he had been murdered.
Mr Tahu, now a successful Wellington restaurant owner, was 8 when his father, Rodney, was murdered at a service station in Turangi in 1979.
His killer, Menzies Hallett, was found guilty in the High Court at Rotorua on Wednesday of murdering Rodney Tahu.
It was not until Hallett’s arrest in late 2011 that Hemi Tahu began to fully understand the case – and that was in part thanks to his old school friend Greg King.
The Wellington lawyer, who died last year, rang him after Hallett’s arrest to explain the circumstances, and how a change in the law had allowed Hallett’s former wife to give evidence against him.
‘‘Greg said one of the reasons he decided to study law was because of the interest he had with how my father was killed.’’
Mr Tahu, owner of Charlie Bill restaurant in Thorndon, said that his mother, Hana, deliberately shielded him and his younger brother from the full facts of the killing as they were growing up.
‘‘I knew, of course, something bad had happened that night but I didn’t really know a lot of what went on.
‘‘I was too young to take in what had happened. I don’t think I ever cried.
‘‘It was not until two years ago that it hit me. It is only since he [Hallett] was arrested two years ago that I have found out the truth.
‘‘I never really discussed it with my mother – it was too upsetting to bring up for her.
‘‘As I grew older, I began to think if the police are not able to do anything more, then what could I do.
‘‘The family each had different ways of coping, and that’s how I coped. The way I handled it was to forget about it otherwise it would make me sad.
‘‘The trial has allowed us to find some closure, but I don’t think the family will ever get over it.’’
His
mother and
grandparents brought the two young boys up until his mother married Colin Hair and the couple moved north about 20 years ago.
Mr Hair, who been the main family spokesman during the recent trial process, said he deliberately did not discuss the murder with the boys when they were younger.
‘‘I felt if they wanted to know they could ask – it ensured that they didn’t hear anything that wasn’t quite correct.
‘‘Their mother, Hana, was a very strong woman and she focused on bringing them up without going into the past.’’
Throughout the trial, Mr Tahu wore a World War I dogtag that his maternal grandfather, William Ormsby, had worn at Gallipoli.
‘‘None of us knew until the final days how the trial would turn out. I thought if this [dogtag] got my grandfather through Gallipoli, it will get me through this trial.’’
He recalled that his father liked rugby, fishing, music and hot rods. ‘‘His pride and joy was his lakeside green Monaro 350GTS, which he let me drive.’’
The car was on the service station forecourt when Rodney Tahu was shot. It is now owned by a car collector, and estimated to be worth more than $50,000.
Mr Tahu tracked the car down a few months ago and took it for another drive.
‘‘It is still in pristine condition. My father really liked the car – everyone in Turangi knew it. If I had the money I would buy it back.’’ TWO former Taupo detectives were close to being shot by Menzies Hallett as they moved in to arrest him 33 years ago.
Detective Sergeant Doug Scott and Detective Rex Hawkins tried to talk Hallett into giving himself up after he returned to Taupo from Wellington several days after shooting Rodney Tahu.
The pair, along with armed offenders squad members, cornered Hallett inside Lochinver Station, on State Highway 5, east of Taupo, late at night, blocking his escape route.
Mr Hawkins, now a Taupo publican, said yesterday: ‘‘I had been calling to him over the loudhailer to give himself up for about three hours as he kept driving around in his car, checking to see if we were closing on him.
‘‘I remember saying to him, ‘Come on, Menzies, give yourself up, it’s bloody cold here’.
‘‘He called back, ‘Well, you can bloody well freeze’.’’
Hallett stopped his car and the two detectives drove up alongside him.
‘‘We were side by side looking at him when he leaned forward and pulled out a shotgun from the driver’s door.’’
The gun went off, seriously injuring Hallett in the torso and shoulder.
‘‘One moment I was talking to him, the next thing there was this loud bang,’’ Mr Scott said. ‘‘I could have been another victim.’’
The two officers rushed Hallett and arrested him.
‘‘To this day I don’t know whether he was intending to shoot us, shoot himself, or the gun went off accidentally,’’ Mr Scott said.
Hallett later walked free because there was insufficient evidence against him.
Detective Inspector Mark Loper, who led the latest inquiry into the murder, shed light yesterday on why it took so long to rearrest Hallett after the 2006 law change that allowed his ex-wife’s evidence against him court.
There was a need to clarify the police position in detail after the law change, he said. Police had to gather all the information from the original inquiry, computerise it and ‘‘make it searchable’’. ‘‘This was a huge administrative task.’’
The next step was to find and reinterview witnesses, and find death certificates if they had died. Forensic exhibits had to be reexamined.
The inquiry also had to be fitted in with regular day-to-day investigations, including highprofile homicides and serious crimes, he said.
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