Woman asked for help to move before killing
On the day she was killed, homeless woman Barbara Campbell was concerned about the behaviour of a group of men who’d been harassing her, and asked police if they could help her move from the Christchurch shopfront she’d made her home.
They didn’t, and less than two hours later one of the three men, Richard Landkroon, kicked her to death.
Landkroon, a schizophrenic rough sleeper who had been in and out of mental health care for two decades, was charged with her murder.
Last month, the 44-year-old was found unfit to stand trial, but a High Court judge ruled that on the balance of probabilities he had committed the crime. He was detained as a special patient in Hillmorton Hospital, a mental health facility.
Police witness statements, released to The Press by the court last week, paint a bleak picture of Campbell’s life in the makeshift camp she’d set up on the fringe of a New Brighton car park.
And they reveal officers twice spoke to her in the hours before she was fatally attacked by Landkroon on January 12 – interactions that have been looked at as part of a police review and will likely come under scrutiny during a coronial inquest.
Police insist the actions of the officers involved were ‘‘appropriate based on the information they had at the time’’.
Campbell, 46, also known as Rose, was estranged from her family, suffering from terminal bowel cancer and had battled alcoholism and mental health issues for years. She had refused offers of help from social services, including emergency housing and financial assistance for medical treatment.
On the day of the murder, a member of the public contacted police with concerns about Campbell’s welfare, the witness statements say.
Three constables arrived at the car park about 5.30pm and found her dishevelled and hunched up in the doorway of a vacant shop. She was surrounded by food, clothing, bottles of wine and cans of bourbon and a shopping trolley and suitcases filled with other belongings. She had been drinking and appeared agitated.
The officers struggled to get any information from her, even her name.
A security guard from a nearby supermarket, where Campbell had been trespassed from, told one of the officers he was concerned about Campbell’s wellbeing. He believed a group of homeless men had been stealing her property and bullying her.
The officers told the security guard to call 111 immediately if the men returned and caused further trouble.
Campbell said one of the men had grabbed her by the hair and thrown her to the ground in the middle of the night.
She gave the officers his name (not Landkroon), but did not want them to go and speak to him until the following day, by which time she would have moved. She said she was about to go and stay with an old school friend but would not give the friend’s name or where she lived as she did not trust the police.
Campbell eventually told the officers to go away. Before they left, they told her to alert supermarket staff if she had any issues with the homeless men.
About 8.50pm, police were called to reports of two men chasing vehicles out of the car park. Three constables arrived a short time later and found Campbell and three men hanging around her campsite. All of them seemed drunk. Two of the men, one of whom was Landkroon, appeared to be arguing. The third was heavily intoxicated and asleep next to Campbell.
Campbell asked the officers to tell the men to leave the area, as they were abusing her, and she did not feel safe with them around. She also asked if they could help her move, but could not say where she wanted to go.
The officers declined her request. Campbell’s belongings would not fit in their car, and they needed to take the heavily intoxicated man back to the police station. However, a police van was dispatched separately to pick up the drunk man’s bike.
Landkroon was told to leave the area and appeared to do so but shouted obscenities as he left the car park. The man he had been arguing with was taken home by a supermarket employee.
‘‘At no point did Campbell appear to be fearful of her safety when we were around and once all three males had been requested to leave,’’ one of the officers wrote in their statement.
About 10pm, a man, believed to be Landkroon, approached a dog walker’s car and started banging on her window, giving her and her 12-year-old daughter a fright. The woman called 111 and said she was worried the man might hurt someone. By then, he had run off.
The call taker said they would tell police units in the area to keep an eye out for the man.
But officers did not cross paths with Landkroon again, and about 30 minutes later he approached Campbell at her campsite. The pair exchanged words before he attacked her.
Landkroon repeatedly kicked Campbell in the head and upper body before walking away, leaving her bleeding and unconscious on the ground.
She was rushed to hospital where she died about 12.40am the next day.
Landkroon’s extensive history with mental health services in Christchurch and other parts of New Zealand spans two decades.
At the time of the attack, he was receiving mental health treatment on a voluntary basis in the community in Christchurch. His care was last reviewed at the Hereford Centre on January 7.
At a High Court hearing this month, Justice Jonathan Eaton said he understood Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, formerly the Canterbury District Health Board, had either conducted or was going to conduct an internal investigation into the care Landkroon received prior to him killing Campbell.
A coronial inquiry would also explore any failings.
Police insist the actions of the officers involved were ‘‘appropriate based on the information they had at the time’’.