‘Red flags’ ignored ahead of murder
A coroner’s inquest into the death of double murderer Paul Tainui’s second victim and the suspected suicide of his first victim’s father has been told ‘‘red flags’’ showed he could kill again.
Paul Pounamu Tainui, born Paul Russell Wilson, was on parole for the 1994 murder of his girlfriend, 21-year-old Kimberley Schroder, when he raped and murdered 27-year-old Nicole Marie Tuxford at her home. Schroder’s dad, Gary James Schroder, was ‘‘inconsolable’’ when he found out Tainui had killed again, and died in a suspected suicide three days later on April 10, 2018.
Tainui was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 28 years in 2019 for raping and killing his colleague Tuxford.
Red flags that Tainui could kill again were raised when he befriended Tuxford despite being twice her age, and obsessed over her just as he did over Schroder two decades earlier, Nikki Pender, counsel for the families, told Coroner Marcus Elliott as the inquest opened yesterday.
Tainui insisted on visiting Tuxford’s home to ‘‘lend her things’’ on multiple occasions, behaviour that prompted a disciplinary meeting with a supervisor at his workplace. He watched her, apparently jealous, and was observed by a number of people appearing to become angry at her for reasons that were unclear.
‘‘She told him she just wanted to be friends ... He threatened to burn down her house.’’ Tuxford was urged to go to police but ‘‘she thought she had it under control’’, Pender said. Despite the host of concerns, no-one intervened, she said.
‘‘The families do not accept this is a case of hindsight bias on that basis.’’
Over the next two weeks the coroner will hear from relatives, police, Corrections and others to attempt to determine how Tuxford’s and Schroder’s deaths happened, with particular focus on Tainui’s risk of reoffending and how he was able to kill Tuxford despite police intervention hours before. The coroner will be asked to assess if more could have been done to prevent Tainui’s actions and whether there was scope to prevent both deaths generally.
In 2014, Tainui was a groomsman at the wedding of David Bain, who in 2009 was acquitted of murdering five members of his family in 1994. The pair had met in prison.
Members of both families read statements yesterday detailing their frustration, heartbreak and despair at two deaths they felt were ‘‘absolutely’’ preventable.
With her daughter’s ashes sitting beside her, Tuxford’s mother, Cherie Gillatt, said she ‘‘brought Nicole today, so you can see the failures you have brought to my daughter’’. Her death, and that of Schroder, came as a result of ignored concerns, she said. ‘‘If there is one thing I can do for Nicole, it is to prevent another family going through the unbearable pain of having to go through this.’’
Gillatt said Corrections, police and Parole Board systems required a serious review.
Schroder family spokesperson Jenny Keogan told the court they were filled with frustration and anger as a result of numerous Parole Board hearings where they went unheard, eventually leading to Gary Schroder’s suspected suicide.
From 2007 to 2010 the Schroder family attended Tainui’s parole hearings, continually expressing strong concerns that he was dangerous and would reoffend.
Each hearing was more traumatic, and left the family broken when he was eventually granted parole.
Nicole’s father, Stephen Tuxford, said the inquest would not provide him with closure as it would not bring his daughter back.