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LONG-SERVING
FEATURE POLICE DETECTIVE

AND PRIVATE

INVESTIGATOR

TREVOR MORLEY DIES

IN RETIREMENT HE BECAME A
HOBBYIST POLICE HISTORIAN

Trevor Morley, former policeman, and private investigator, pictured in 2006. He had the 1961 murder of Wellington teenager Wendy
Mayes reopened after finding there had never been a
coronial inquest.
One of New Zealand’s highest profile private investigators, Trevor Morley, has
died at the age of 76. A coroner officially declared Mayes had been murdered
in 2008, but there was not enough evidence to who did it.
Morley was a detective in Wellington, from 1961 to 1977 and later ran his own
investigative firm, Morley Security and Investigation Group. He also helped to rediscover the gravesite of Constable
Vivian Dudding, the only police officer to be killed in the
As a detective, Morley worked on the so-called “Vice Squad”, which investigated line of duty in Wellington city.
moral crimes such as prostitution, abortion, pornography, and illegal gambling.
Dudding was shot by Alexander Aspin, a Norwegian
As a private investigator, Morley worked for a number of high-profile clients and waterside worker who had broken into his ex-wife’s house
was the president of the New Zealand Institute of Private Investigators. in Thorndon on October 6, 1919.

More from Stuff: While it was a high-profile case at the time, the incident
* Quiz: Morning trivia challenge: March 9, 2023 had been forgotten and Dudding’s memorial had fallen
* Quiz: Morning trivia challenge: March 8, 2023 into disrepair.
* Quiz: Afternoon trivia challenge: March 8, 2023
Despite his early work investigating moral crimes, Morley
In a 2006 interview, he said he worked cases involving fraud and employee theft, later supported a number of progressive social causes.
as well as some cases of clients wanting proof of their partner’s infidelity.
On the Vice Squad he regularly investigated illegal
abortion, but later changed his view, contributing to a
2006 book by the Abortion Law Reform Association of
New Zealand

He also contributed to the PrideNZ historical archives,
because much of his police work was focused on
Wellington’s gay and transgender community.

His entry particularly focused on his memories of Carmen
Rupe, a trailblazing transgender activist and brothel
keeper.
Morley arrested Rupe twice, but said the two mostly
shared a friendly relationship of mutual understanding
despite being on opposite sides of the law.

Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, his family are planning a
memorial service to be held in Wellington a year to the
Trevor Morley at the grave of shot police officer Vivian Dudding who was killed on duty in 1919. day on April 9, 2021.
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