FIREFIGHTER TURNED TO DRUGS AND PROPERTY

Murder victim Tony Stanlake was a long-serving fireman but after a
conviction for cannabis cultivation blighted his career he turned to
property development. Kim Ruscoe and Nikki Macdonald report.

Stunned firefighters say the brutal Owhiro Bay murder has robbed them
of a friend they once trusted with their lives.

Tony Stanlake had worked at several Wellington and Hutt Valley fire
stations before being medically discharged in 1995 because of a back
injury. His last posting was as station officer of the Northland station.

Wellington deputy chief fire officer Boyd Atkinson said yesterday that
he and colleagues were stunned that someone they once knew well had
come to such a brutal end.

"Maybe you didn't know him that well after all, that he has got
himself into a position where that would happen to him.

"I had him as a driver for a while. I never felt scared driving with
him. He was a good pump operator, he did his job. You don't really
think much beyond that. If they don't give you cause to criticise
them, you don't go looking for it."

He last spoke to Mr Stanlake on the phone just before
Christmas.

Ever the fireman, Mr Stanlake had called to report a Miramar fire and
the two men spent some time "talking about old times and people who
had been and gone".

A father of two adult daughters, Mr Stanlake was separated from his
wife and had a "female companion" when he was murdered. After his paid
job with the Fire Service ended in 1995, Mr Stanlake worked as a
volunteer for Victim Support for 18 months.

In 2001, while a volunteer fireman at Porirua, he was convicted in the
High Court in Wellington on two counts of cannabis cultivation. He was
fined $10,000. Mr Stanlake, then 57, was an ACC beneficiary, yet he
and his wife had property and assets worth more than $1.3 million.

Crown prosecutor Kate Feltham said Mr Stanlake had learnt how to grow
cannabis during a visit to Amsterdam in 2000. When he returned, he
rented a lockup garage in Porirua and without his wife's knowledge set
up a hydroponic cannabis-growing operation.

His lawyer Mike Antunovic said Mr Stanlake had no intention of setting
up a commercial operation. He had hired the lockup to store two
vintage cars but decided to use it to grow a one-off supply of
cannabis, which helped to ease his back pain.

Mr Stanlake had also suffered depression after the death of his son in
2000.

Mr Stanlake owned a house in Lancaster St, Karori. Retailers in the
nearby shopping village yesterday described him as quiet and polite.

A cafe staff member said Mr Stanlake would come in almost every
morning, drink a cappuccino and do the crossword. "He was a quiet guy,
quite nice. He would be waiting in the door for me every morning. He
was always the first through the door."

A takeaway shop owner said Mr Stanlake had been coming in for years
for evening meals. "I saw him about two weeks ago. He always walked
along here. He's got lots of property. A very nice guy, very polite."