Defence in murder trial is: ‘we weren’t there’

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 13

Defence in murder trial is: ‘we weren’t there’

“We weren’t there and didn’t do it,” said Mrs Judith Ablett-Kerr, senior defence counsel in the High Court yesterday afternoon, opening the defence case for Wayne Pohutuhutu, aged 22, who has denied a charge of murder.

The defence is calling evidence, but Pohutuhutu is not going into the witness box.

The trial which began on September 14 will not finish until next week. Pohutuhutu has denied murdering Michael James Dowling, aged 28, on March 6. His co-accused, Llewellyn Robert Beard, aged 23, has pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to life imprisonment by Mr Justice Williamson.

The Crown is represented by Mr Brent Stanaway and Mr Mark Zarifeh, and Mrs Ablett-Kerr and Mr Diccon Sim, both of Dunedin, appear for Pohutuhutu.

Mervyn Beard, the brother of Llewellyn Beard, said that his sister came from Australia and they had a series of parties for her. At that time Llewellyn Beard was staying at witness’s place and at the home of Porline Ginty in Skipton Street.

His sister returned to Australia the day before the Skipton Street party, which led to the death of Mr Dowling. On that day, Wednesday, witness, Llewellyn Beard and Pohutuhutu went to MacFarlane Park where they were supposed to meet a guy. It was not for a legitimate purpose. They met up out-

side the park in Skipton Street about 7 p.m. They split up. Llewellyn Bears was supposed to meet the guy and they went along as backup in case anything went wrong. They were in the kindergarten when the car arrived about half an hour later.

When the man who they were waiting to see arrived and saw that the chap he was supposed to meet was not there his suspicions were aroused. Llewellyn ran up and Pohutuhutu attacked the car by smashing the passenger’s side window with his fist.

The guy was just getting out and jumped in when he saw another two men running towards the vehicle, which moved off. Llewellyn Beard tried to drag the guy out of the car, but had to let go after the car got about 10 yards down the road.

On their return to Skipton Street they saw that Pohutuhutu had a gash on his hand, which was bleeding badly, and this gash was washed in the bathroom. Witness did not go to the party on the Thursday night. To Mr Stanaway, Mervyn Beard said that they were all friends of Porline Ginty. They did not remove their shoes and wash them when they went back to her house.

You’re being awfully coy about why you went to MacFarlane Park to meet this guy. What was going on? — We were just supposed to meet him. Was this going to be a drug bust and you were going to take something off somebody? — There was only going to be one

guy and we weren’t going to use much force. Just grab it and take off. Was he going to get a kicking and bashing if he resisted? — One of us was going to act as backstop, yes.

Mervyn Beard said that it was his brother Llewellyn who had thought up the idea. They did not have any weapons. He agreed that his brother and Pohutuhutu were pretty thick at that time, but he denied that concerned him. It was not correct that he had an argument with his brother about his association with Pohutuhutu, and witness was not trying to avoid talking to Pohutuhutu.

Mervyn Beard admitted that he had made a statement to the police in which he said that he was worried about his brother’s association with Pohutuhutu, and that his brother had gone a bit strange because he was hanging around with him.

Witness admitted that they had been after drugs and that they had money to buy them if they wished to. They- wanted the drugs for themselves. It was agreed by Mervyn Beard that he had been present in court for some of the time when depositions were taken. On the Friday, Pohutuhutu and the others had seen him about 7.45 a.m. before they went to Dunedin. He denied that there had been any talk about Michael Dowling’s death or about a man being wasted in the park. To Mrs Ablett-kerr, Mervyn Beard said his brother was acting strangely because he had

fallen out with Porline Ginty. The person they were supposed to meet in the park was Dean Reagan. At the time he had been living in Skipton Street, but he had “a fall out” and had left. Reagan had been there for about thee weeks.

Michael Dowling was alive when he was dumped on the section in Grimseys Road because of the amount of blood found on the body and on various positions on the ground near it, according to the evidence of Dr John Ewart Pettit, a pathologist.

When he examined the body on the site the face was covered in blood, swollen and obviously battered. There was no pulse in the neck and no sign of life. There were multiple injuries to the head, neck and limbs. Blood was in both nostrils and in the outside of the right ear. There were multiple fractures of the nose and facial bones. There was bleeding into the eye sockets. On the forehead was an oval, gaping laceration which had been caused by a blow from a reasonably sharp object. It could have been caused by a stone or a piece of masonry. There was extensive blood in the throat, wind pipe and major airways. The lungs were heavy and swollen. Blood was also found in the stomach, intestines and brain. The cause of death was multiple severe head injuries followed by suffocation from blood in the airways and lungs, Dr Pettit said.