One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, or so the saying goes.
Shot dead yesterday by police in New Zealand having attempted to rob a shop, Tom Phillips, one of the world’s most notorious fugitives, somehow still divides opinions.
For almost four years he had vanished into the New Zealand wilderness, taking his three young children with him.
Ignoring their mother’s pleas to bring them home, while on the run, the 38-year-old carried out a string of armed robberies and when confronted by police in the early hours of Monday morning, shot a policeman in the head.
And yet even now there’s still a misguided minority who see him as the ‘victim’.
‘Why didn’t they just leave him alone? Kids were fine,’ reads one comment beneath a story relating the detail of Phillips’ bloody last stand with the police yesterday.
Another adds: ‘He was just a father trying to protect his children.’
On the run for three years and eight months following a custody battle with his estranged wife Cat – mother of Ember, now nine, Maverick, ten, and Jayda, 12 – it is widely believed that Phillips managed to evade the authorities only with the support of sympathisers.
Shot dead yesterday by police in New Zealand having attempted to rob a shop, Tom Phillips, one of the world’s most notorious fugitives, somehow still divides opinions
CCTV appears to show Phillips and one of his children steeling grocery items from a store in the northern New Zealand region of Waikato
The children Ember, Maverick and Jayda (pictured)
While undoubtedly an accomplished ‘bushman’, how else could he and his children have survived for so long in such inhospitable terrain? Few truly believed they could have been living off the land, all alone, for all that time.
Not least because his youngest daughter suffered badly from asthma and would have required prescription inhalers to cope with the condition.
In recent weeks, however, there was a sense that something had changed, forcing Phillips to break cover.
While there is no suggestion that he had been helped by his blood family – farmers living in the remote King Country region of New Zealand’s North Island – it was only last month that his sister stepped forward to appeal for him to hand himself in.
‘There’s a lot of love and there’s a lot of support, and we’re ready to help you walk through what you need to walk through,’ said Rozzi, giving her first interview.
‘I miss you, and I miss being part of your life, and I really want to see you and the kids and be part of your lives again.’
Then, days later, Phillips was caught on CCTV, seemingly accompanied by one of his children, trying to break into a shop in the hamlet of Piopio, some 40 miles from his home town of Marokopa, the centre of previous searches.
On that occasion they were using an angle grinder to cut their way into the store when a siren sounded, forcing them to flee.
Police speculated that maybe Phillips had attempted the brazen burglary because he no longer had the sort of support he once had, or that his circumstances had changed in some other way.
Two weeks passed without a sighting until the early hours of yesterday morning when the pair were back in Piopio, this time attempting to gain entry to an agricultural supplies store.
Why a child accompanied him on these raids is unclear. But some have speculated that he hoped that, if disturbed, the presence of a minor would mean police would be less inclined to intervene or chase them.
The children’s mother Cat had not seen Jayda, Maverick or Ember since December 2021
Photos show the scene where New Zealand fugitive Phillips was shot dead by police yesterday
A high-risk strategy and one which, ultimately, led to Jayda bearing witness to the tragic events of yesterday.
At 2.30am the pair were seen by a member of the public. They rang police to say they were witnessing a burglary involving two people on a quad bike – a man and a child – dressed in farm clothing and wearing head torches.
As police responded, the pair sped from the scene on the quad bike, travelling along a rural gravel road in the direction of Marokopa.
Believing that the offender was likely to be Phillips, police rushed towards the hamlet.
Working on a hunch as to the direction they might be heading, at 3.20am officers deployed a strip of spikes at a junction in the road, designed to puncture the vehicle’s tyres.
The device worked, forcing Phillips to pull the quad bike off the highway soon after. A gun battle followed.
Aerial photographs taken of the scene indicate how the bloody shoot-out unfolded.
Images show the quad bike, laden down with supplies, on the grass verge beside the road. What appears to be a high-powered rifle is propped up nearby. Other firearms were also found on the quad.
A police car, two of its doors open wide, is stationary on the road some ten metres behind the off-road vehicle. At least four bullet holes can be seen in its windscreen. Behind it is a second police car.
Phillips’ body lies on the road between the quad bike and the two cars.
‘The first attending police officer at the scene has come across that stopped quad bike and been confronted by gun fire at close range,’ explained Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers.
‘Our officer has been struck in the head, he’s immediately fallen to the ground and taken cover. Soon after, a second patrol unit arrived and engaged the offender and he has died at the scene.’
Jayda Phillips was located at the scene of the shootout
The shot police officer was airlifted to hospital for injuries that were described as critical but survivable. He is understood to have undergone an operation on an eye – the first of what it is said would be ‘numerous surgeries’.
Quite what horrors Phillips’ daughter Jayda would have witnessed, one can only imagine. But she was safe and well and was immediately taken into police custody.
The officers’ efforts then shifted to locating the two younger children, a matter of some urgency due to near freezing temperatures.
Given their previous inability to locate the family, the key to finding them clearly lay in Jayda’s hands.
Though the authorities were concerned she might have been ‘brainwashed’ by her father while on the run, and would therefore see them as the enemy, thankfully she co-operated – and yesterday afternoon her two siblings were found safe and well in a self-built campsite little more than a mile away from where the shooting took place.
It was said to have been in a ‘very remote’ location and took police some time to reach.
‘To know the children are safe, and now receiving care after nearly four years, is an absolute relief,’ said Rogers.
‘Every person involved in this case has had the welfare of the children at heart. While they are safe, this is the start of a long journey of recovery and their welfare remains our top priority. For that reason, we will not be going into details about where they are now or their mental state.’
She added: ‘The scene has been locked down and will be subject to a forensic examination that we expect will last several days.
‘A significant amount of work lies ahead of us, but we are grateful to see an end to what has been three years of torment for the children’s family.’
Psychologists said the loss of their father, with whom they had spent so much of their formative years – whatever the circumstances – would undoubtedly be ‘hugely traumatising’ and that reintegrating into society would not be easy.
The fugitive was on the red quad bike (pictured) as he tried to flee police in the North Island region of Waikato
News of the children’s discovery was relayed to their mother, who issued a statement.
‘We are deeply relieved that for our tamariki [the Maori word for children] this ordeal has come to an end,’ she said.
‘They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care.
‘At the same time, we are saddened by how events unfolded today. Our hope has always been that the children could be returned in a peaceful and safe way for everyone involved.’
She also expressed her love to the police officer injured in the incident and thanked those in the community who had supported her since her estranged husband and their three children first went missing in 2021.
By then Phillips had been separated from his wife for several years and was home-schooling the children.
Full details of the couple’s domestic arrangements have not been published because in New Zealand it is prohibited to report on family court proceedings.
Before Phillips took the children, much of their time had been spent on the family farm at Marokopa.
Then, one Sunday in September 2021, his 4×4 truck was found abandoned on the shoreline with empty child seats in the back.
A huge land and sea search was launched, only coming to an end 17 days later when Phillips and his three children walked through the front door of his parents’ farm.
Before Phillips took the children, much of their time had been spent on the family farm at Marokopa
All were safe and well and it emerged that he had spent the time trying to ‘clear his head’ while camping in dense bushland ten miles from where the vehicle was found.
Amid a public outcry over the cost of the search, Phillips was charged with wasting police time and resources.
But in December 2021, a month before he was due in court, he left the family farm with his children for a second time. It wasn’t until he missed his hearing over the wasted resources that police issued an arrest warrant.
Initially, there was a certain amount of support for his actions, with some seeing him as a father trying to bring his children up in the manner that he wanted to.
Since then, despite a continuing police search and the offer of a £37,000 reward, there have been just a handful of sightings.
In May 2023, Phillips is alleged to have stolen a motorcycle and, accompanied by a smaller, female accomplice, held up a bank at gunpoint.
He was subsequently charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm.
But the most significant sighting came last October when two teenagers out hunting wild pigs spotted four figures trudging through rough terrain on their farm.
Believing them to be poachers, the 16-year-olds filmed them on a phone. Their footage shows a heavily bearded man in camouflage gear carrying a backpack and rifle, followed by three smaller, similarly dressed figures.
It was only when the teenager sent the video to his grandfather that he realised who they were.
New Zealand Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers addressed a press conference at the Hamilton station on Monday
Although officers were alerted soon after the sighting, scrambling a helicopter with heat-seeking cameras, no trace was found, with the hunt called off after three days.
The ability of Phillips to once again evade the authorities was a source of frustration for their mother.
‘It was like Christmas come early and I really thought they would be coming home this time,’ she said at the time.
‘It’s a confirmed sighting and yet nothing has come of it.’
In the past police have been criticised for not a taking a more aggressive approach to finding Phillips, with some suggesting Special Forces should be deployed in the hunt.
But senior officers said they wanted to avoid a confrontation, fearing the risk Phillips posed to others, including possibly his own children.
Police have also criticised those in the community for helping Phillips, something the children’s mother strongly echoed.
‘My babies deserve better,’ she said when the October sighting proved fruitless.
‘It’s beyond time that they come home, and supporting Thomas is essentially supporting child abuse because that’s what it is. There’s no beating around the bush. None of this is OK.
‘My problem is that my babies are gone. My problem is that people are helping and they need to stop. Those people need to stop.’
In the coming days and weeks, police will attempt to unravel the mystery of how – and with whose help – Phillips managed to stay on the run for so long.
But whatever lessons they learn, no doubt in his death, as in life, some will continue to see him as a kind of martyr rather than what he really was: a deeply misguided man whose actions irrevocably changed his children’s childhoods, led to his own death – and very nearly cost the life of an innocent policeman.
