Charged man asked for Santa bear

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 17

Charged man asked for Santa bear

A man who went to the Central Police Station to confess to setting fire to his girlfriend’s house, later asked a detective to retrieve from the house his Santa bear, which he had decapitated with a knife. Evidence of this was given during a preliminary hearing in the District Court yesterday of a charge against David Patrick Duke of wilfully setting fire to a house in Estuary Road, South Brighton, on the evening of December 19. After hearing depositions of evidence of prosecution witnesses Messrs C. W. Crawford and A. L. Mclvor, Justices of Peace, held there was sufficient evidence to commit Duke, aged 21, for trial. They remanded him on bail pending a date for his trial in the High Court. Conditions of bail include a curfew provision, and that he continues to be treated as an outpatient at Sunnyside Hospital. His counsel, Mr Paul McMenamin, reserved the defence.

Sergeant Kevin Morrison prosecuted.

Evidence was that the two-storey building, valued at $BO,OOO and jointly owned by two sisters, was badly damaged in the early evening fire. Petrol was poured in rooms upstairs and downstairs, and on the staircase.

Ivan Robert Steele, a fire assessor for the S.I.M.U. Insurance Company, said he assessed the premises for fire and property damage. The cost of restoration of the house was $17,263.41. Damage to personal property and belongings was $21,118, and payment for temporary accommodation for the occupants was $2896.

Victor Ford, a taxi driver, gave evidence of being called to pick up a fare at the house in Estuary Road about 8 p.m. oh December 19.

The man had a 4-gallon kerosene tin and asked to be taken to a service station to fill it with petrol. He told the taxi driver his car had run out of petrol. After filling the tin with $lO worth of petrol the man was driven back to the house.

The witness said he could not say with any degree of accuracy that the customer was the defendant in Court. Police evidence was given of the house interior appearing th have been ransacked, with clothing and other household items strewn about. A kerosene tin was found in the lounge. It smelt strongly of petrol, although it was empty. Detective John Thompson told of making investigations at the scene of the

fire, and of later taking a suitcase of clothing to Duke at Sunnyside Hospital.

Duke asked him if he could pick up from the house his Santa bear. He said he had cut off its head with a knife. The detective said he returned to the house, found the Santa bear with its head severed, and a bread knife on a windowsill beside the staircase.

The bear was an exhibit in the case. Constable David Garlick said that while he. was working in the watchhouse of the Central Police Station at 10.25 p.m. on December 19, Duke called at the counter and said he wished to confess to a crime he had committed. He told the constable he had burnt down his girlfriend’s house in Estuary Road earlier that evening. He said he had used petrol to ignite it. He had used "heaps” of petrol and had “splashed it all round the house.” He mentioned the bedrooms and lounge.

He said he did it because his girlfriend “does not love me any more.” Detective Constable Ross Tarawhiti gave evidence of interviewing Duke. In a written statement Duke allegedly said he had been in a hotel that afternoon, drinking with his girlfriend. She had left between 5.30 and 5.45 p.m. to see somebody, and he continued drinking. They had not argued.

He later went to the house in Estuary Road and knocked on the door but found nobody home. He found his suitcase at the front door. He broke a window and climbed inside.

He searched for his old letters and poems and pictures but could not find them. He threw everything round in his search. He then telephoned for a taxi and took a tin to fill it with petrol. He poured the petrol “everywhere upstairs, downstairs in the lounge, bathroom and bedrooms.”

After lighting the fire on the landing at the top of the stairs he left the house and saw from a distance that it was “smoking.” Later, he telephoned the house but got no reply. He then went to the police station.

After the statement was completed Duke asked for some paper and wrote what appeared to be a will. It was headed, “Last will” and in it he wrote some requests, and messages to various people.

When cross-examined, the detective said that when he first saw Duke he appeared to be very calm and collected. After he had been spoken to he seemed relieved to be telling somebody what he had done.