No motive in machete, knife attack

Press, 24 June 1986, Page 4

No motive in machete, knife attack

A young man was hacked to death with a machete and a knife by mistake, or for no apparent reason, Mr Justice Eichelbaum and a jury were told in the High Court yesterday. Daniel Moana Ryan, aged 20, unemployed, and Ernie Kirikau Poi, aged 23, a labourer, have denied a joint charge of murdering Peter Leonardis Wayne Hendricks, aged 22, in a house in McFaddens Road, St Albans, in the early evening of October 29.

Mr Hendricks had taken a young woman on the back of his motorcycle for a social visit to her brother, who lived at the house in McFaddens Road and was about to depart for England. Poi arrived at the front door with a large machete, and asked if Sidney was there, according to the Crown. Told there was nobody of that name in the house, Poi barged in and attacked Mr Hendricks with the machete when an attempt was made to stop Poi from entering the lounge. The women in the house ran to get help and Poi was joined by Ryan. Poi and Ryan fled from the house, leaving Peter

Hendricks lying close to death on the floor of the kitchen-diningroom, he having been stabbed a number of times with a kitchen knife and severely wounded with the machete.

The trial is expected to last more than a week, with the Crown calling 41 witnesses.

In addition to the murder charge, Ryan has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting Mrs Deborah Curry with intent to injure or alternatively assaulting her, robbing Craig Neil Limmer of his motor-cycle while armed with a machete or unlawfully taking the motorcycle.

Poi also denied a charge of unlawfully getting on to a motor-cycle. The Crown is represented by Messrs D. J. L. Saunders and M. N. Zarifeh.

Messrs G. R. Lascelles and G. F. Orchard appear for Ryan, and Messrs M. J. Glue and A. N. D. Garrett for Poi.

The officer in charge of the case is Detective Sergeant D. M. Quested. Opening his case, Mr Saunders said that the charge against Ryan and Poi arose after a particularly violent and apparently motiveless attack on Peter Hendricks, who the Crown said was murdered at 89 McFaddens Road. On Tuesday evening, October 29, the occupants of the house had two lots of visitors. The first was Hendricks and a young woman, Kathleen Healey, who had got Mr Hendricks to transport her to see her brother, Peter Healey, who lived in McFaddens Road. The evidence would be that Mr Hendricks and Miss Healey had been close friends and met after work to make a social call on her brother, who was about to depart for England. They went on Mr Hendrick’s motor-cycle, and just as they arrived they came across Peter Healey and Peter Bruce Curry, who were going to purchase a bottle of wine at a local hotel. After a brief conversation, Mr Hendricks rode his motor-cycle up the drive, and parked it at the rear of the house near the back door. The couple then went into the house where Deborah Curry and

Susan Instone were preparing an evening meal. Some five minutes later two further visitors, Ryan and Poi, arrived in an old blue Hillman car, which was parked near the end of the drive, facing Cranford Street. These two visitors were neither expected nor welcome. Poi arrived at the front door with a large machete. He asked Susan Instone for Sidney and was told that there was nobody of that name there, nor did anyone know of a person called Sydney. Poi barged his way into the house, and immediately set upon Mr Hendricks, the only male present, when he attempted to stop Poi entering the lounge. The three females ran to neighbouring houses.

Susan Instone and Kathleen Healey, who were the first to leave the property, saw Ryan leap out of the Hillman car and run to the front door. As she ran down the drive Deborah Curry stopped to check on her infant daughter, who was asleep in a cot in a bedroom next to the front door.

She would say that after a quick look in the bedroom window she was struck in the face by a Maori man wearing a woolly hat, with his hair sticking out from the sides.

She fell to the ground, and was kicked repeatedly all over the body. She suffered bruising to an eye, shoulder, elbow and leg. Although the injuries were not permanent, the Crown invited the jury, after hearing Miss Curry’s description of the assault, to find that the person who inflicted them was guilty not of a simple assault, but of assault with intent to injure. What happened in the house, until the time Ryan and Poi left a few minutes later, was not precisely known.

“However, what is known is that when they ran off Peter Hendricks was lying close to death on the floor of the kit-chen-livingroom, having been stabbed a number of times with a kitchen knife and severely wounded with a machete,” Mr Saunders said.

“How those injuries were actually inflicted, and by whom is not capable of direct proof by any Crown eye witnesses, and when Ryan and Poi were apprehended after this incident they chose to exercise their right of silence.

“No explanation was given by either accused for their visit to the property or why Mr Hen-

dricks was attacked,” said Mr Saunders. The Crown did say, however, that the injuries suffered by Mr Hendricks were neither self-inflicted, nor were they inflicted where provocation or self defence could be raised as an excuse for the actions of the accused. The Crown said that all the evidence pointed to the fact that at the time the fatal injuries were inflicted on Mr Hendricks, Ryan and Poi were acting together in a joint enterprise and intended to cause his death.

Or at the very least, they meant to cause him serious bodily injury, and were reckless as to whether death ensued or not.

The Crown case on the murder charge was that Ryan and Poi, for reasons best known to themselves, travelled to McFaddens Road where they apparently wanted to speak to a person named Sidney. Poi forced his way in and attacked Mr Hendricks who tried to defend himself. On seeing the woman leaving, Ryan rushed to the aid of Poi. It was suggested that he used one of the four knives which were on the table to stab Mr Hendricks in the region of the heart.

They departed with the weapons that had been used in the attack. The two chased a neighbour who had started to cross the road to the property. The Crown alleged that the machete was wielded by Ryan, the person wearing the woollen hat.

A window was smashed in the house of the neighbour before they made their way towards Jameson Avenue.

On learning what was happening, a neighbour had turned off the engine of the Hillman and removed the keys from the ignition so that Ryan and Poi could not use it as a getaway vehicle. One of the accused unsuccessfully demanded the keys back.

While driving west on McFaddens Road, Sandra

Ann Alexander saw one accused with a long sticklike object, and the other with a bread and buttertype knife in his hand. She would say that she thought it was Poi who had the knife. At the intersection of McFaddens Road and Jameson Avenue the knife was thrown under some bushes where it was found by Constable G. P. Barry during a police search next morning.

After the two became separated, Ryan confronted Craig Neil Limmer, who was riding a new Honda 125 motorcycle, which he had purchased that day. Ryan still had the blood-stained machete, and the youth had no alternative but to hand over his machine. With the machete clenched between his teeth — a difficult feat considering its size and weight — Ryan rode off on the motor-cycle and picked up Poi in Jameson Avenue.

By that time, the police had arrived at the scene, and a witness pointed out the direction Ryan and Poi had gone. Patrol cars gave chase and the two on the motor-cycle attempted to get away at high speed.

The chase continued along Cranford Street, and, in an attempt to elude the police, Ryan rode the motor-cycle into the grounds of the Christchurch Women’s Hospital, up the steps and through the doors of the entrance. There was a short, but violent struggle before the police overpowered Ryan and Poi and took them to the Central Police Station.

Questioned by Detective Sergeant P. N. Gardiner, Ryan kept replying that he either did not know or could not remember. He was sullen and uncooperative and eventually refused to answer any questions until his solicitor, Mr Lascelles, was present.

Next day, when Mr Lascelles was there, Ryan, apart from acknowledging that he had been with Poi

in the Hillman car, made no other admissions and refused to make a statement

After his arrest Poi complained of violent stomach pains, and because of his behaviour in the cell block the police found it impossible to interview him. He was admitted to the Princess Margaret Hospital. Poi was kept under close observation, and two doctors would give evidence that in their opinion he was not suffering from any abdominal pain, and was behaving in an over-dramatic way.

Apart from a laceration on one finger, there were no significant injuries on Poi, and he was interviewed by Detective Sergeant Quested at 6.30 a.m.

When asked what happened the previous evening, Poi claimed that he did not know. He said that he had been drinking rum, but he did not know why he had gone to the house in McFaddens Road or why he had had a fight. Without having been told that Peter Hendricks was dead, Poi asked Detective Quested: “I didn’t

kill him did I. I’m asking you.” When told that he had, Poi replied with a four letter word. From then he replied “don’t know” to every question put to him.

Both accused were charged with murder. “It is only natural in a case such as this, where there is a violent and tragic death of an innocent young man who seemingly was doing no more than protect three young women, that you will feel a sense of outrage and prejudice towards those responsible for his death. Any such emotions have to be put out of your mind,” Mr Saunders said.

The fatal wound might well have been inflicted by only one of the accused, and it might not be possible to say with precision which one was actually holding the knife. “If you are satisfied that Poi was the man with the machete and that Ryan, after entering the house, used the knife, then clearly under our law both men can be guilty of the charge of murder,” Mr Saunders said.