{"id":249465,"date":"2026-01-24T11:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/249465\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T11:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:20:18","slug":"tragic-circumstances-flatmates-gun-allegedly-used-by-hamilton-murder-accused-jack-hargreaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/249465\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tragic\u2019 circumstances: Flatmate\u2019s gun allegedly used by Hamilton murder-accused Jack Hargreaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

A motorist had stopped to pick him up as he hitchhiked<\/a> on Gordonton Rd.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s alleged he then stole the motorist\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

The motorist was left shaken but uninjured.<\/p>\n

Police say that at 12.40am, the police dog unit spotted the stolen car and pursued it north to Ng\u0101ruaw\u0101hia, where road spikes were deployed.<\/p>\n

The car came to a stop in Ng\u0101ruaw\u0101hia, and Hargreaves was arrested.<\/p>\n

Hargreaves has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has a trial scheduled for February 2028.<\/p>\n

\u2018Worst outcome imaginable\u2019<\/p>\n

The gun allegedly used by Hargreaves belonged to his flatmate, who appeared in the Hamilton District Court this week, where he was sentenced on three charges of unlawful possession of a firearm.<\/p>\n

His counsel, Bolivia Newton, said the outcome was \u201cthe worst one imaginable\u201d, but told the court that the firearm used in the alleged murder had been stored in a locked cabinet.<\/p>\n

The flatmate had been described as a \u201cgood family man, and valued member of his car club, well-loved and a good person and good father, despite the immense difficulties he has faced\u201d.<\/p>\n

He had not appeared in court before.<\/p>\n

Newton pushed for an end sentence of supervision, which was unusual for these types of charges, \u201cbut this is a highly unusual case\u201d, she submitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall circumstances of this case and the features personal to [the defendant] can be described as tragic.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those reasons, it appears a sentence of supervision is appropriate and available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge David Cameron agreed that it was an unusual case.<\/p>\n

The flatmate didn\u2019t hold a firearm licence, while the firearms themselves \u2013 a rifle with a silencer, a pump action shotgun, and a cut-down double-barrelled shotgun \u2013 had been passed down to him after his father died in 2024.<\/p>\n

He had been assessed as being at a low risk of reoffending.<\/p>\n

Judge Cameron agreed that supervision was appropriate and handed down a sentence of nine months.<\/p>\n

He also ordered the destruction of the firearms and issued the defendant a Firearms Prohibition Order.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A motorist had stopped to pick him up as he hitchhiked on Gordonton Rd. It\u2019s alleged he then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7818,3595,84611,104190,3606,6288,145114,22259,82528,111,43,139,69,11787,13797],"class_list":["post-249465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-allegedly","tag-by","tag-circumstances","tag-flatmates","tag-gun","tag-hamilton","tag-hargreaves","tag-jack","tag-murderaccused","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tragic","tag-used"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}