Tully removed from murder trial after outburst

Russell John Tully lasted one minute in court before being removed from his own double-murder trial for disrupting the session in the High Court at Christchurch.

Tully was present today, for the first time, on the second day of the trial. Until the session began, the jury had been given no explanation about why he was not present for the opening sessions of the trial.

Tully was brought into court in a wheelchair and sat looking through the Crown’s photo booklet while the court began.

Once the session began, he immediately questioned Justice Cameron Mander about why he was there.

The judge told him to please remain quiet.

Tully said: “You have brought me here this morning after you had excused me to go and lie down.”

Tully, sitting restrained in a wheelchair, shouted that he was not fit to stand trial.

After one minute in court, Justice Mander then ordered the four Corrections officers to remove him from the court and he was wheeled out.

The judge then asked the jurors to put the exchange they had seen “out of your minds”.

It was completely irrelevant to their functions as jurors. They should concentrate on the evidence, while the trial went on without Tully being present today.

He said they should not draw adverse conclusions from the incident they had witnessed.

The Crown then began calling evidence from the first of its 82 witnesses.

Tully, 49, is on trial for the murders of Peggy Turuhira Noble and Susan Leigh Cleveland and the attempted murder of Lindy Louise Curtis and Kim Elizabeth Adams, in a shotgun shooting at the Ashburton Work and Income NZ office on September 1, 2014.

He is also charged with setting a man trap – a steel wire – and unlawful possession of two shotguns.

Tully also has no lawyer of his own, but is represented in court by two amicus curiae (friends of the court), James Rapley and Phil Shamy. The Crown is represented by Andrew McRae from Timaru and Tully was not present yesterday when the charges were read but he was deemed to have entered not guilty pleas.

[Morning update] Jaimee Sarah Carrodus, the assistant manager at the Ashburton WINZ office, said she had dealings with Tully in July 2014 when he came to the office to get a grant to buy a mountainbike. He was told to get a quote from The Warehouse to buy a $200 bike, but returned with a quote from a bicycle store for $2000.

He was told to go away and get The Warehouse quote and then that was done. He seemed to be fine with that.

Tully had explained that he had been living in his car at Tinwald, but it was not registered or warranted and could not be used. He wanted help with transport to get prescriptions from the pharmacy for what he said was a “skin eating condition” that he had. He was treating it with peroxide.

“He said he was contagious and not to come too close,” the witness said.

She said that after coming to the office on August 7 and receiving a $25 food grant – all that remained from his year’s allocation – he had put a phone on loudspeaker and called the Ashburton Guardian newspaper to complain about the amount. He said he was not leaving the office until he got what he wanted. He spoke to the regional manager and it was decided he could have extra assistance for food and accommodation, and for prescriptions.

When Tully realised the accommodation money was recoverable from his benefit, he ripped the document into pieces. She told him to leave the office, and left as soon as she called the police.

He was in their office for about six hours that day and because of his behaviour it was decided to serve him with a trespass notice. She served the notice on him, outside the office next day, with the office security guard present.

“He was very demanding and very manipulative with staff. He was was never aggressive, but quietly intimidating towards staff, making threats about going to the media.”

The Canterbury regional director for WINZ, Shane Brendon Carter, said he had a phone conversation with Tully on August 7, because he was being difficult and would not leave the Ashburton office.

He arranged for five nights’ accommodation for him, plus money for food and prescriptions. Tully said he wanted a Housing New Zealand house but none were available at that time. He said he had a medical condition and had come to Ashburton to die. “He wanted a State house, for that to happen.”

[Afternoon update] Witnesses told of Tully taking a tenancy of a storage shed in Ashburton in early August, 2014, but his tenancy being terminated at the end of the month because it was believed he was “camping” there during the day. When given a letter terminating the tenancy, he tore it up.

A cycle shop owner Paul James Wylie, who had previous dealings with Tully, told of seeing him cycling towards the town about 8.15am or 8.20am on the day of the shootings, which occurred at 9.51am, according to information provided to the trial.

He said Tully was on a black mountainbike, had a backpack on, and was wearing a balaclava which was rolled up on his head. He was wearing a black helmet. Cross-examined, he agreed he could not say for certain that it was a rolled up balaclava he saw.

 

 

 

Tags: Ashburton, attempted murder, murder, WINZ

Category: News