Murder-case boy ‘had been violent’

Press, 7 September 1976, Page 3

Murder-case boy ‘had been violent’

PA Dunedin A 17 -year-old youth accused of murdering a 13-year-old schoolboy in Oamaru earlier this year spent several months in both Wakari and Cherry Farm hospitals for psychiatric assessment. the Supreme Court at Dunedin was told yesterday.

An Oamaru doctor. John Colin Baird, said he referred the accused youth, Andrew Robert Barry Rogers, to the psychiatric department at Wakari in 1973 after he was told by the youth’s mother about his uncontrollable, violent acts at home. Rogers spent . several months at Wakari as a patient before being sent to Cherry Farm for another few months, Dr Baird said. He was released in 1974.

The doctor was giving evi- ' dence for the Crown in the j trial of Rogers who is accused of stabbing Brian Alexander Johnson at Friendly Bay on the afternoon of May 18 this year, Rogers is alleged to have inflicted a total of 22 stab; I wounds on Johnson, 20 of [ (these to his back after the) fatal wounds to the chest. I , The trial began yesterday! | before Mr Justice Ongley| and an all-male jury. Mr I. H. Mam (Oamaru) is prosecuting and Mr B. McClelland I (Christchurch), with him Mr j A. Neill (Oamaru), appears fur Rogers. In his opening address to ■ the jury, Mr Main said thatj ’the accused had two mo-i fives, revenge for alleged] j informing about the accused ’ to the police by the dead I boy, and an alleged beating I of a small friend of the accused by the dead boy. i ; Mr Main said that the al-] leged murder was committed on the Tuesday of the last week of the May school

holidays. Death was caused by a stab wound which penetrated the heart of the dead boy. There were 21 other stab wounds to Brian Johnson’s body, Mr Main said. “The Crown alleges that the accused not only killed Brian Johnson but that he intended to kill him.” Mr Main said that the dead boy was fishing off the Oamaru wharf with two friends on the day he was allegedly murdered.

The knife allegedly used by the accused was approximately eleven inches long and was purchased the day before the alleged murder. “It was a planned premeditated act of murder.” A 16-year-old youth said that he and several other boys, including the dead boy, had been fishing at Friendly Bay on the morning of May 118. Rogers arrived after lunch. He had a knife and a record player with him. Rogers asked where Johnson was, and when he was fetched by another youth, Johnson, Rogers, the witness, land another youth left the [wharf area and went to the (playground. ’ Rogers threw his knife at witness’s bike and after coming out to pick it up, Rogers moved around to the back of a nearby wooden (shelter. The witness said he heard some banging noises coming from the back of the shed. He heard Rogers accuse Johnson of beating up a friend of the accused and he heard Johnson deny this. After a while, Rogers and Johnson emerged. Johnson was rubbing his throat and crying.

“Rogers asked me for my belt and I gave it to him,” the witness said. “I felt nervous in case I got beaten up too.” Accused and deceased then went back to the rear of the shelter and the witness said there were more banging sounds and gasping noises. “We went over and looked through the gap at the back of the shelter. I saw Brian lying flat on his back on the ground with the belt twisted around his neck. He was gasping and pleading with Andrew to stop. His face was dark purple, and Andrew was still twisting. “I told Andrew to stop but he didn’t. I ran back to my bfke and as I was leaving I saw Andrew stab Brian twice in the back.” The witness said he did nothing to stop the accused as he was afraid of getting knifed too. “I went back to the wharf to collect my fishing gear and then returned to the playgroond. I saw Andrew and asked for my belt back.” As the' witness walked across the overhead railway bridge with Rogers, the accused said, “You’ll hear a scream if someone goes behind the shed.”

Later, when they were at a pool room, the witness said he asked where Brian was and Rogers said he had stabbed him in the back, the stomach, and the chest. Rogers was calm while describing what he had done, the witness said, and he said he was going to “get” two other youths as well.

Cross-examined by Mr McClelland, the witness said he could have gone to the police after what he had seen in the playground, but he “did not think of it.” He said he was scared as Rogers looked as if he would have stabbed anyone, no matter who else was there. A 12-year-old schoolboy who was with the previous, witness said he also had told Rogers to stop when he was apparently trying to strangle Johnson with the belt.

As he was leaving with the other witness he looked: back and saw Rogers with his hand raised but he could not see what was in it. “I ran. I was scared,” the witness said. He returned to the wharf for his fishing gear and his little brother and then left the area by way of the overbridge. “I did not know what had happened to Brian,’’ the witness said. Doctor Lee Asher Fagan, a Timaru pathologist, said he examined the body, and it was his opinion that death was due to homicidal stab wounds to the chest. After carrying out an autopsy, Dr Fagan found four groups of wounds. There were haemorrhages on sides of the neck consistent with the application of a tight ligature like a belt, and there were fresh abrasions on the skin. There were two penetrating wounds in the chest and about 20 such wounds in the back.

The front and back walls of the heart were lacerated as a result of one of the stab wounds to the chest, and the aorta had been perforated as a result of the other. Dr Fagan said the frontal wounds had been inflicted first. The one which penetrated the heart would have caused death within seconds. The boy had evidently fallen forward and the multiple stab wounds were then inflicted to his back. There had been a belt around his neck some time before he died, and a number of kicks had been delivered to his shins, fairly recently. The doctor said he believed that Johnson had been partially strangled with a belt and kicked about the shins after which the 22 stab wounds were inflicted.

The frontal wounds, one of which would have been the cause of death, pene : trated the full depth of the boy’s body and would have been delivered with a good deal of force, as would the wounds to the back.