Murder accused tells of being ‘haunted’
Murder accused Mauha Huatahi Fawcett has spoken to the police about feeling “haunted” after the death of sex worker Mellory Manning.
In a four-hour interview with the police, the 26-year-old Mongrel Mob prospect told the interviewing officer, Detective Inspector Tom Fitzgerald: “My fear is bigger than my pain.”
Detective Inspector Fitzgerald said: “We also have to deal with the haunting for the rest of your life too.”
Fawcett replies in the recorded interview, played to the Christchurch High Court murder trial today: “I know the haunting, Tom. I feel it every day. I try to hide it away but it gets worser and worser every time I think about it.”
The officer said: “I can see it in your eyes.”
Fawcett replied: “One day I am going to have to come back to Christchurch. That’s what scares me the most.”
The officer told Fawcett to “get rid of the burden, mate”.
Fawcett denies the murder of the 27-year-old sex worker, who the Crown says was taken to a Mongrel Mob gang pad in Avonside where she was beaten, strangled, and stabbed over money she owed, either for drugs or for a Mob “tax” on sex workers.
The trial before Justice David Gendall and a jury was told on its 11th day that Fawcett had first been treated as a source by the police but had then been interviewed as a suspect.
When he was interviewed by Detective Inspector Fitzgerald he denied that he had hit Miss Manning or that he had picked her up from Manchester Street. The officer said: “You told us you were there but you didn’t hit her.”
“The Mob can kill me anytime,” Fawcett replied.
He said he had earlier spoken to Miss Manning’s “boyfriend or husband” about money that was owed for working on the street. He told him: “We run the street and people are paying us money, homage.”
Later that night, another gang member told him to stay on Manchester to watch the girls and see who was getting all the jobs. Otherwise they would sell drugs to them and try to get them in debt. There was always a way to get money off them.
The gang member told him: “We are unstoppable, untouchable, and this is our town.”
The gang member walked up the street and stopped at a “Red Cross van” – probably a Salvation Army caravan – and got them soup, donuts, sandwiches, and pies. Fawcett said: “I used to feel guilty [because] they were were there for the homeless. [The gang member] said if they look at you just punch them in the face.” They had a feed.
Update from afternoon session: Later in the interview, Fawcett said a gang member had wanted Miss Manning “hit” because she owed money. He said the hit was done by the time he got to the gang pad. He said a woman told him a couple of days later that she had stabbed Miss Manning and kept going until she stopped screaming. Other weapons used in the attack had been a “pole-hook” and a metal bar.
Fawcett said his role had been to help clean up. He had seen Miss Manning’s body lying on the ground. He described her injuries as “holes and blood” and she had a smashed in face.
She was lying on a tarpaulin when he saw her, not moving. Her body was then wrapped up and put in the back of a car. He was told to be a diversion in another vehicle in case the police approached while the body was being dumped. If necessary he was to ram the police vehicle.
Afterwards, he smoked some P “to try to forget everything”.
He said he was telling a different story in this interview – he had earlier described seeing a “bloodbath” – because he had earlier lied about seeing the attack because he had thought he would be safer from the Mob in jail.
The trial is continuing.
Category: News
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