Pickering murder suspect has Nazi past

Vanessa Pickering

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The man charged with murdering young mum Vanessa Pickering was a founding member of a skinhead gang.

Today Sunday News can reveal Malcolm George Chaston co-founded South Island-based gang the Fourth Reich with another man – a convicted murderer – in the 1990s.

Chaston appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday charged with Pickering's murder, the same day she was farewelled at Christchurch Cathedral.

Pickering's body was found by police searching at Godley Head, on Banks Peninsula, a few days after her disappearance on Monday last week.

Her daughter was found wandering alone in a paddock on the night her mother went missing. Pickering is believed to have died of stab wounds.

Chaston, 40 – who is in custody and will reappear in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday – had earlier been charged with assault with intent to commit sexual violation, and separate counts of abduction, assault and sexual violation of a child last week.

The detective in charge of the Pickering homicide, detective senior sergeant Virginia Le Bas, told Sunday News she "didn't really know" if Chaston was linked with Neo-Nazi gang the Fourth Reich.

But a gang source and police intelligence officers confirmed Chaston's involvement with the gang, which is now largely based in Nelson and along the West Coast.

Chaston is no longer an active member.

Meanwhile, a gang source said white-supremacist gangs like the Fourth Reich and new gang Nazi Skins were again on the rise and their numbers inside Christchurch Men's Prison were swelling.

- © Fairfax NZ News