Henare Barber (left), Reardon Kamaru and Arden Neho are on trial in the High Court at Wellington on charges of arson and murder after the death of Ian Moller (insert) in November 2024. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

A former Mongrel Mob member has given conflicting accounts about whether a man accused of murder was near the crime scene at the time, at one point telling police he saw him there wearing a Black Power patch and later saying he may have mixed up the nights.

George Hadfield,who at the time was a patched Mongrel Mob member, gave evidence today in the murder trial of Mangu Kaha gang members Arden Neho, Reardon Kamaru and Henare Barber.

But by the end of his testimony, Hadfield’s evidence had become so contradictory that he couldn’t say for certain if he’d seen Kamaru on Hanson Grove on the night in question.

The trio are on trial in the High Court at Wellington, charged with murder and arson following a fire at a block of Kāinga Ora flats in the Wellington suburb of Stokes Valley in November 2024.

It was the third fire at the flats in less than four weeks, but only Neho has been charged in relation to setting the first two fires.

As a result of the final fire, pensioner Ian Moller, who had lived in his flat for 23 years, died in hospital several days later from smoke inhalation.

Hadfield’s evidence came after four days of adjournments after several members of the jury and counsel became unwell.

During his evidence, it emerged he gave police two statements describing events on the night of the fatal fire, which started in the early hours of November 5, 2024.

He said he and Kamaru were at a nearby shed on a property near Hanson Grove that night, along with others who lived at the house. Cannabis and methamphetamine were being smoked.

In his statements to police, Hadfield said Kamaru had left the shed after midnight.

He said he and his girlfriend then saw Kamaru again on Hanson Grove.

Hadfield told police Kamaru was wearing dark clothing and gloves, with a black T-shirt over his face, and “looked as silly as f***”.

“He got a fright when he saw us, and we got a fright when we saw him.”

Kamaru told them he was off to commit a burglary, he claimed.

But in the witness box, Hadfield changed his account, telling the court, “It’s a bit blurry, but seriously, the bro [Kamaru] was with us most of the night.”

While Hadfield had told police Kamaru’s patch was visible that night, he insisted from the witness box that Kamaru had been wearing a jersey over the top of his patch.

He also said in evidence that when Kamaru left the shed, he’d only left to go for a walk with Hadfield and Hadfield’s girlfriend, which differed from the account he gave police about Kamaru leaving and Hadfield later bumping into him on Hanson Grove.

When asked by Crown prosecutor Anselm Williams to explain his differing accounts, Hadfield said he’d been caught off-guard on the day he’d given his second statement because he was due in court that day, “so my mind was a bit clouded”.

“The statement you gave ran to 76 paragraphs,” Williams responded.

Hadfield’s evidence was followed by almost two hours of cross-examination by Kamaru’s lawyer Marty Robinson, during which he gave various contradictory accounts.

At one point, he suggested he hadn’t seen Kamaru on Hanson Grove on the night of the fire, but the night after, explaining he’d been awake for 72 hours as a result of smoking methamphetamine and may have got his nights mixed up.

After telling police he’d seen glass blowing out of the building on the night of the fire, Hadfield told the court he’d seen the glass on the pavement the following morning after the fire engines had left.

“You never saw Reardon lighting anything, never saw him with petrol or a Molotov cocktail?” Robinson asked.

“No,” Hadfield responded.

The Crown’s case is that Neho and Kamaru lit the fires with Molotov cocktails to get their gang patches under the direction of Barber, a patched Mangu Kaha member.

This is the third week of the trial before Justice David Boldt, with the Crown expected to close its case next week.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.

Join the NZ Herald’s Open Justice team for Case by Case, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand.