Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Mark Hoggart and another man - who cannot be named - were on trial in the High Court at Auckland earlier this year, charged with murder and aggravated robbery.
The men were arrested in 2017, after police began reinvestigating the high-profile cold case in 2016.
It was the third-time-lucky for the investigation team: Hoggart and the other man had been considered the prime suspects in the earlier investigations, but there was never enough evidence to arrest them and lay charges.
During the trial, the Crown said the case against the two men was largely circumstantial - but the evidence pointed to them being the heavily disguised offenders who burst into the tavern late on the night of 24 October 1987.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Father of two Chris Bush, 43, was gunned down at the pub in Maramarua in October 1987 and the offenders fled with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, coins and cheques.
Mark Hoggart and another man with name suppression were found guilty after a seven-week trial in the High Court at Auckland earlier this year.
This morning, Justice Woolford sentenced both men to life imprisonment for murder. They would be eligible for parole after serving 10 years in prison.
The unnamed man has been sentenced to a concurrent eight-year jail term for aggravated robbery, while Hoggart has a concurrent seven-year sentence.
Two men jailed for life, 33 years after Red Fox tavern murder Fri, 7 May 2021, 10:43AM
Christopher Bush, 43, and a father of two, was shot dead in October 1987. (Photo / Supplied)
Two men jailed for life, 33 years after Red Fox tavern murder Fri, 7 May 2021, 10:43AM
The widow of slain Red Fox Tavern publican Christopher Bush has welcomed a sense of relief and justice after the two culprits were jailed.
Mark Joseph Hoggart, and a second man with name suppression, were found guilty in March of aggravated robbery and the murder of father-of-two Bush.
The pair will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years in prison, as the law requires they be sentenced according to penalties available in 1987 when the murder happened.
The effort has been organised by Filipa Payne, founder of the Iwi n Aus and Route 501 groups, who advocates for the deportees. Tauranga lawyer Craig Tuck is understood to be on board with the action. The meeting of the support group began about 7pm. Shortly after, the meeting crossed to a man on Christmas Island, the site of a major Australia detention centre. Payne told the meeting while the plight of the deportees is becoming more widely known, there remained limited awareness of the conditions deportees faced while in detention prior to being sent across the Tasman. “That’s the trauma New Zealand is not connecting with.