Murder accused refuses to handle weapon

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 8:29p.m.

An 18-year-old charged with murdering retired Opotiki school teacher John Rowe has refused to handle the walking staff she allegedly attacked him with.

Shown the staff while being cross-examined by crown prosecutor Greg Hollister-Jones in the High Court at Rotorua, Courtney Churchward turned away and said she didn't want to touch it.

She has pleaded not guilty to Mr Rowe's murder, along with a 15-year-old whose name is suppressed.

To Gene Tomlinson, who appears for the 15-year-old, Churchward agreed she had discussed with her co-accused knocking Mr Rowe out, but said doing so had not really come into her mind until they entered his house.

She agreed her co-accused had been worried, but denied that once inside the house it was she (Churchward) who had been in charge.

Not everything she had told a detective in a video interview had been true. "I lied about a lot of things trying to make it better for my co-accused so she might be set free...I said a lot of things I didn't mean. I tried to keep her part to a minimum."

She denied she was now trying to downplay what happened. "I am just trying to tell the truth."

When the walking staff was shown to her, Churchward said she did not think it would cause "that much" damage. She later used a ruler to demonstrate the type of swings she had used, indicating she held the staff at head height.

"I didn't just go `bang, bang, bang'."

Mr Hollister-Jones reminded her a pathologist had compared Mr Rowe's injuries with a boiled egg being banged against a bench.

Counsel: "You did that by hitting him again...and again...and again."

Churchward: "I only hit him to knock him out, not hurt him so much."

She denied that once she had started hitting Mr Rowe she could not stop.

Asked if the only way she could cope with his death was to block it out, Churchward replied through tears that she would never block it out.

She said she tried to summon help for Mr Rowe but his phone was not working and she pressed the wrong button on his medic-alert system.

Reminded she had told the detective interviewing her that she was evil and liked to hurt people, she said those comments had not been true. She denied feeling good when she hit Mr Rowe.

At the conclusion of her cross-examination she said her co-accused had been fully involved.

Meanwhile, a man was charged today with disorderly behaviour after causing a disturbance in the public gallery this morning.

The man was arrested by Detective Inspector Rob Jones, who escorted him from the court as the man wrestled with him.

He had become aggressive when the court crier asked him to remove an unlit cigarette from his mouth.

The Crown and defence are expected to make their closing addresses tomorrow.

NZPA

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