Hoarder bashed to death in his home
An 87-year-old man – living in a house crammed with hoarded goods – was bashed to death in his Upper Riccarton home by a teenager whose life revolved around getting money to buy synthetic drugs.
The defence at the two-week trial is urging the jury to return a manslaughter verdict rather than murder.
The trial has heard that elderly Harold Richardson was involved in a “Fagin” type operation with a group of 16 and 17 year old youths in the area in 2015, including Taniela Kotoitoga Daven Tiako Waitokia who is now charged with murdering him.
Waitokia, now aged 18, denies the murder charge.
Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier said the victim lived in a “hoarder’s den” in Owens Terrace where every corner was crammed with goods.
He would pay the youths for odd jobs they did around the house, or for items they brought to sell him. He would buy the goods “whether they were of legitimate provenance or not”, Miss Boshier said.
Defence counsel Jonathan Eaton QC told the jury that Richardson was a friend of Waitokia. “He used to give him money when he was buying stolen property, for Taniela to feed his drug habit”.
Miss Boshier told the jury that Richardson had regular contact with the group of 16 and 17-year-olds.
She said: “They didn’t go to school or work. It seems all they did do was smoke synthetic drugs, sleep, and try to get more drugs to continue the cycle. The defendant told police his life revolved around getting money to buy synthetic drugs.”
The Crown will call evidence from 20 witnesses in the two-week trial before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury in the High Court at Christchurch today.
It says Waitokia told a friend who had refused to supply him with synthetic drugs on August 1, 2015, that he was going to “kill Harry”. The friend would say that Waitokia was “hyped up and off his face”.
It says Waitokia went to Richardson’s house and bashed him 14 times on the head and face with a brandy bottle which broke. The victim had a broken finger and left arm, and stab wounds on his forehead and knee. Blood on Waitokia’s shoe indicated it had made forceful contact with Richardson four times. Blood spatter indicated the assault had continued when the victim was on the floor, where he was later found dead.
Waitokia took away a backpack of alcohol and another bag of electronic goods.
He returned to his friend and told him, “Harry’s gone.” He showed him the stolen items.
When Waitokia returned to where he was staying, he told a relative that he had gone into a house where had “bottled a guy” who was asleep.
Waitokia said he was “going down for 14 years minimum for manslaughter or murder”.
He made a statement to police that he had gone to the property with three other people and had only struck Richardson twice. He said he had “smoked some crack” about an hour before and was not thinking clearly.
Footage from a nearby service station video camera showed only a lone cyclist passing by in both directions.
The Crown case is that Waitokia either intended to kill Richardson, or intended to cause bodily injury and knew it was likely to cause death but continued anyway, or that he meant to cause grievous bodily harm for the purposes of a robbery. These amounted to murder, Miss Boshier said.
Mr Eaton said Waitokia had always accepted that he would be guilty of manslaughter, but he denied committing murder. He had never thought that what he was doing might kill Richardson. “Not having that thought means it cannot be a reckless killing.”
He had assaulted Richardson because he was distressed and angry, and not to carry out a robbery.
“Where there is no murderous intent, it is not murder under our law – it’s manslaughter,” he told the jury.
The trial is continuing.
Category: News
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