Woman tells of visit by murder accused
A woman who said Mauha Huatahi Fawcett turned up at her house for a shower in the early morning of December 19, 2008 – the morning after the murder of sex worker Mellory Manning – described him as sketchy, on edge, and not himself.
The woman had known Fawcett for some time, and said on this night he had blood on his pants, t-shirt, and boots.
He told her he had been out with another Mongrel mob member, fighting, the woman told the High Court at Christchurch on the ninth day of the trial at which 26-year-old Fawcett denies a charge of murder.
She said he was different from how he usually was – he was sketchy. He asked her for a shower, and she went back to bed, but after the shower he came into her room and sat on the end of her bed and talked to her.
She said he had different clothes on, but the same boots, and asked her for a rag to clean them.
She offered to wash his clothes but he put them in a plastic bag and took them with him.
A few days later when she saw him again, she told him he looked tragic, and looked like he hadn’t been sleeping, she said.
He told her he got rid of the clothes in a bonfire, and he was having nightmares but couldn’t tell her the bad thing he had done, and said he was going away.
Defence adviser for Fawcett, Craig Ruane, asked the woman how drunk she was the night she said Fawcett showered at her house, and if she had made it up in retribution for Fawcett taking a car off her and giving it to the Mongrel Mob. She denied it.
Fawcett, who was a Aotearoa Mongrel gang prospect, has denied murdering 27-year-old Ngatai Lynette Manning, known as Mellory, on or about December 18, 2008, and is defending himself. Miss Manning’s partly naked body was found in the Avon River on December 19, 2008.
Update, Afternoon evidence: In a police interview in January 2009 Fawcett said he used to drive up and down, or walk on Manchester Street at night.
He said the girls on the street would ask him to look out for them, and would pay him in McDonald’s food, petrol money, or cigarettes, but he wouldn’t force them to pay them if they couldn’t afford it.
He said the girls were friends, and if they needed a hand, they asked him to watch out for them, and he liked to help them out like that.
Sometimes, he said, he did it by himself but sometimes other men would come down and sit with him.
He denied the Mongrel Mob had a plan for Manchester Street, and said he had been looking out for the girls since November.
Then he got sick of it, was being pulled up every night by the police, and it was costing him more than he was making, he said.
On December 19 he heard a police scanner radio saying the police were cordoning off streets around an area he knew.
He went for a drive later that night and saw the road blocked, saw a caravan, and thought that it looked like a homicide, he said.
He said he didn’t know Mellory Manning.
His role in the Mongrel Mob was as a soldier, he said, and he was a prospect for the Mob.
He left Christchurch because he felt uncomfortable and was due for a hiding because he was asked to do something and he didn’t want to do it, he said.
He denied in the interview that he knew what happened to Mellory Manning, saying she was just another prostitute to be killed in the last three months, and they just seemed to be being knocked over.
The trial is being held before Justice David Gendall and a jury.
Category: Focus
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