Noisy neighbour murder: Cold-blood killer jailed for life Wed, 21 Jul 2021, 12:38PM
Tristan Locke was found guilty of murder after a trial at the High Court in Christchurch. (Photo / Kurt Bayer)
Noisy neighbour murder: Cold-blood killer jailed for life Wed, 21 Jul 2021, 12:38PM
An out-of-work barman who stabbed his neighbour to death in cold-blood after an early-morning row over loud music has today been jailed for at least 10 years.
Tristan Ross Locke, 31, was found guilty of murdering neighbour Mark Graham Cowling, 44, on last Father s Day, September 6, 2020, after a trial at the High Court in Christchurch last month.
American-born Locke became so incensed with Cowling phoning noise control, and cutting power to his flat at least twice over a few hours, that he took a knife, went next door, and stabbed him to death, the trial heard.
He was pulled over while driving on July 10. A police officer thought Locke showed signs of being impaired and asked him to do a breath test, but he refused. Locke was taken to the police station, but refused to provide a blood sample for his blood-alcohol level to be tested. When Locke appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday, he indicated he would be representing himself in defending the charge. He told Judge Michael Crosbie he originally wanted the charge to be heard alongside his murder charge, but this was refused.
STUFF
Listen: The 111 call Tristan Locke made after he fatally stabbed his neighbour Mark Cowling during a dispute over noise.
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Marine Lourens05:00, Jun 05 2021
STUFF
Listen: The 111 call Tristan Locke made after he fatally stabbed his neighbour Mark Cowling during a dispute over noise.
“If I let go of him right now he s going to die,” Tristan Locke told a 111 operator after a dispute over loud music saw him attack his neighbour. MARINÉ LOURENS reports on the Father’s Day murder. An hour before Tristan Locke stabbed his neighbour to death, he called his grandmother. That’s what he usually did when he was feeling overwhelmed or distressed. It was only his mum and his grandmother who could comfort him when he felt this way. His relationship with them was very close, described by a psychiatrist as “unhealthy”.
Tristan Locke, an autistic man who played loud music at all hours of the night, is charged with murdering his neighbour after he complained about his behaviour.