Accused man did not remember stabbing

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 4

Accused man did not remember stabbing

PA Auckland A man accused of the murder of his estranged wife and of attempting to kill her companion has told a jury that he remembered struggling on the ground with a person and waving a knife in his hand, but could recall little else of the alleged incident in which his wife died.

Speaking in Samoan, the accused. Sio Sauni, aged 31. a machine operator, of Avondale, gave evidence through an interpreter in the High Court at Auckland.

Sauni has pleaded not guilty before Mr Justice Moller to a charge of the murder of Susan Ann Sauni and alternative charges of attempting to murder Roger Bruce Birchall and causing Mr Birchall grievous bodily harm with intent to injure him. all on July 2 last year. The Crown, represented by Mr Peter Kaye, has alleged that Sauni stabbed his wife and Mr Birchall outside her flat in New Lynn before stabbing himself in the Abdomen.

Called by defence counsel. Mr David Harvey and Mr Murray Gibson, Sauni said that he had been worried and

confused when his wife did not attend a prearranged meeting at midday on July 2 to see a marriage counsellor. The couple had been living apart. Sauni said he had gone to two hotels with friends that afternoon and had later returned to his aunt's house feeling drunk. He telephoned his wife, but spoke instead to her daughter, aged 13. He had been worried that two children, one of them his son. had been left alone in the flat and he had walked over to the address.

The girl had refused him entry, and Sauni said that he was’ walking away when a car pulled into the driveway and two persons got out. He had called to them and had recognised his wife's voice when she shouted obscene abuse at him and told him to go away. He had approached the couple, but was struck on the mouth and fell. Someone then sat on him. "I felt very close to death. He grabbed my throat and was squeezing it so I couldn’t breath." Sauni told the court that he was struggling and had a knife in his hand which he was waving.

Sauni said that he had heard someone scream, but did not remember seeing his wife again or putting the knife in himself. He did not remember being taken to hospital.

The trial continues.