A bull’s belligerent behaviour recorded by a police detective investigating a sudden death became a vital clue in solving the case.

The 900kg beast, known as Big Boy, was noted by the officer as being aggressive and dominant amongst the other cattle while he was investigating the death of Robert William Hewitt, and it immediately made him wonder whether it was related to the death, so he filmed it.

Hewitt’s body was discovered unresponsive with barely a mark on it by his younger brother, Brian, at his Gore property about 7.30pm on March 19, 2017.

He put a blanket over the 66-year-old’s body, while his wife Lynette called emergency services, who verified Hewitt was deceased when they arrived.

An investigation was launched into Hewitt’s death, which was referred to the coroner.

Coroner Bruce Hesketh said, in his findings released earlier this month, he had viewed the recording made by the detective.

“The footage displays the bull bellowing out his nose, being aggressive and breaking the ground with his feet.

“He began walking up and down the fence line and appeared to display its displeasure toward Detective De Villiers.”

Hewitt’s body had been discovered at the base of the garden gate in a paddock adjacent to the house owned by his brother and his wife.

The couple ran livestock on the 17-acre lifestyle block, which at the time included around 20 beef cattle.

There was a faint wound about 70mm on the right-side of Hewitt’s face and there was dirt on both his forearms and another wound just above the right elbow, the coroner detailed.

Both hands were also dirty and Hewitt’s clothes had some faecal-like material on the back of the shirt and some other marks.

A post mortem examination showed Hewitt suffered severe chest trauma with fractured ribs bilaterally anteriorly and posteriorly, fractured upper sternum and fractured upper and lower thoracic vertebrae.

Hesketh said the cause of Hewitt’s death was multiple traumatic injuries.

“These injuries were consistent with being inflicted by a wild bull.”

Hewitt’s most recent job was at a freezing works but he had experience being around animals, previously having worked in farming and mustering wild animals.

Leighton Keith joined NZME as an Open Justice reporter based in Whanganui in 2022. He’s been a journalist for 20 years covering a variety of topics and rounds.