Road, not stopping until he hit the
volcanic Piha Black Sand Beach on the
western foreshore. On the way, Poulter
discarded Natacha’s purse after failing
to find the $60 he’d given her. He also
ditched the remaining half of his belt
buckle.
By the time he reached the beach,
Natacha had already been found by a
nun walking her dog.
A former police officer recalled the
Karangahape Road of the 90s, in the
days before prostitution
was legalised and the road gentrified
with coffee shops, designer boutiques
and men in suits. “Seedy is a reasonable
description of it. I don’t think you would
have taken your mum up there for a
cup of coffee. There were characters up
there.”
“It was a potpourri of people,
drama, drugs, grog and gangs,” added
a spokeswoman for the New Zealand
Prostitutes’ Collective.
However, the collective perception
of Karangahape Road in those times is
perhaps misjudged – the sex industry
never accounted for more than a small
fraction of its income.
On October 26th, 1996, the day
after the New Zealand Herald received
Poulter’s letter, the killer bought a
five-inch-blade Army-style knife which
he hid within his jacket.
He drank beer in a bar where he
watched the All Blacks win the second
rugby league test on television. At
4.20 p.m., he walked down the street
and around the corner to Cleopatra’s
massage parlour. He paid $50 for a
session with a Thai masseuse, Ladda
Nimphet.
During the session, Ladda left the
room to make coffee and Poulter hid his
knife under the bed.
Shortly after Ladda returned, the
manager Herbert Norris and another
masseuse, Angkana Chaisamret, heard a
high-pitched scream. They dashed to the
massage room and threw open the door.
Poulter stood there with the bloodied
knife in his hand as Ladda squirmed on
the floor with a knife wound in her back.
Poulter slashed and stabbed at
the new arrivals, driving the knife
into Herbert’s forehead and slashing
Angkana’s arm and thigh. As his victims
lay incapacitated on the floor, Poulter
stabbed Ladda and Herbert repeatedly.
He escaped through a window – but
not before slashing himself in the leg by
accident.
Ladda Nimphet and Herbert Norris
died from their wounds. A city-wide
search began that lasted through the
next six hours. Later that night, at 11.13
p.m., an exhausted Poulter walked into
Auckland’s central police station and
impassively placed his knife on the
counter.
In his confession, Poulter blamed the
killings on a second personality that
occupied his head with him – named
Hell. In his muddled state, he said, he
thought his victims were gang members
out to get him.
“Although people won’t believe me, I
do have remorse,” he said. “I am sorry
for what I did, I will be punished for the
rest of my life, but I can’t change the
past. All I can do is change me.”
Poulter’s problems began deep in the
past. His parents were British but they
separated when Poulter was young and
his father emigrated elsewhere. Poulter’s
mother and stepfather wanted to start anew life on their own.
Poulter’s teenage years were spent
in boys’ homes and foster homes. A
short stint in the Navy didn’t work
out and he was discharged. He drifted
through jobs that included shearing,
demolition crews, fishing and farming,
supplementing his income with petty
crime.
Melancholic, he tried to kill himself
three times, then took to drugs and
entered an addiction clinic. He met a
woman there and briefly it looked like
he might get his act together – but when
she was jailed for robbery, it pushed
him over the edge. “Something that was
building up for years,” he said.
In 1997, Poulter was sentenced to
life by Justice Paterson at the Auckland
Central Court with a minimum of 15
years. “It is unlikely, I suspect, that I
will ever be so moved as I have been
by the statements in this case,” Justice
Paterson said. “You took three lives but
it is no exaggeration to say that you have
devastated if not destroyed the lives of
many others.”
By May 2018, Poulter had
unsuccessfully applied for parole onseven occasions. As he faced the parole
board for the eighth time, they were
told of Poulter’s “reintegrative journey”
that included successful days of guided
release into the community.
Granted parole, Poulter was released
in June but two months later he was
recalled due to a breach of conditions,
which included that he could not enter
Auckland or consume any drugs or
alcohol for the rest of his life. Four
weeks later, on September 23rd, 2018,
Poulter was found dead in his cell at
Whanganui Prison.
After being sentenced in 1997, Poulter
had written a second letter to the New
Zealand Herald apologising for his
actions. “It’s been almost a year and
I’m still struggling to come to terms
with it all. I am constantly plagued
and tormented with bad dreams. For
me, it is a punishment on its own and
something I have to live with for the rest
of my life.
“The remorse I have within me
is genuine and deep, especially
for Natacha as her life was a lot
like mine, filled with abuse and
violence. I am sorry Natacha. I am
sorry Ladda. I am sorry Herbert. I
am so very sorry.”Above, Poulter’s irst victim
natacha Hogan. left, the nBK
letter sent by the killer. Below
left, police search the cemetery
where natacha was foundPoulter slashed and
stabbed, driving the
knife into Herbert’s
forehead. He stabbed
ladda repeatedlyKarangahape
road’s red
light district in
the 90s