Back in August 2022, Senior Sergeant Bob Barrett (retired) gave a riveting presentation on his early years in the New Zealand Police. There were tales about notorious criminal Puru Anderson and Colin James Lucas who had a long history of offending.
In September 2023, Bob Barrett returned to talk about the following years in his New Zealand Police career. He began with the grisly murder of Anne Elizabeth Kievet. The murder could have been prevented if his superiors had appealed the ridiculously light sentence given to her killer, Kenneth Mervyn McKay, for an earlier vicious assault on Mrs Kievet with a hammer.
Bob Barrett spoke at length about the Bastion Point protests. His first hand recollection of events that happened prior to the police convoy heading off to Bastion Point is a story which has probably not been recorded anywhere else.
After being promoted to the rank of sergeant, Bob became a member of the Auckland Team Policing Unit. He was on the frontline when the Auckland Team Policing Unit fought a fierce battle with members of the Gipsy Rogues Motorcycle gang.
Bob’s account of these episodes in his career starts on page 5 and ends on page 12 of the September 2023 Newsletter.
The story of a bus trip to Hamilton Gardens, which was only made possible by combining with Waitakere Rebus, follows next in the Newsletter. This trip made use of funds from a successful Waitakere Rebus grant application. It reduced the cost of the trip to $20 per person.
