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A teenager says she tried to convince her friend to escape an abandoned state house before her friend was tortured and hanged.
The Crown’s star witness, who was 14 years old in July 2018 and cannot be named, told police detectives what happened inside the Mangere house.
Her interview with Detective Damon Peterson was played at the High Court in Auckland on Thursday where a 21-year-old woman, with name suppression, is on trial for the kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Dimetrius Pairama.
The Crown says the accused is one of three people who took part in the kidnapping, beating, torture and murder of Pairama on July 7, 2018.
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Her lawyers say while their client took part in the assaults, she was not involved in the killing.
The Crown’s star witness told Peterson she was with Ashley Toko Winter, Kerry Te Amo, the accused and Pairama when the group caught a train from Auckland’s downtown Britomart station.
The group got off at Middlemore Hospital and she and Pairama stopped at a dairy on the way where they bought lollies, chips and pies.
Then the group headed to an abandoned state house nearby.
Alan Apted/Stuff
The police cordon at 308 Buckland Road in Mangere where the body of Dimetrius Pairama was found.
Once inside, Winter took charge, telling everyone to “choose your rooms”.
The witness said Winter looked “serious” when she took her aside and told her to give Pairama a “hiding”.
“She said if I don’t hurt her, she’s going to hurt me.”
The witness went into the room where Pairama was but instead of hurting her, the pair talked.
She said after a while, Winter “stormed in”, dragged Pairama by her hair, and forcing her to the floor.
The witness said Winter demanded she hurt Pairama and the witness confirmed punching Pairama in the shoulder.
She said Winter again forced Pairama to the ground before stomping on her head.
The witness said the accused also assaulted Pairama.
“[The accused] started smashing her as well, [she] punched her stomach and just kicked her leg.”
The witness said Pairama was crying and begging them to stop but the violence continued.
Some time later Pairama was roped to a chair, her wrists were bound, and her ankles taped while Winter used a razor blade to hack off her hair.
David White/Stuff
Kerry Te Amo and Toko (Ashley) Shane Winter at their trial at the High Court in Auckland for the murder of Dimetrius Pairama (composite image).
Te Amo then assaulted Pairama. The witness described the blows as sounding like he was breaking bones.
She said Winter then went rummaging in a cupboard where she found an aerosol can. Armed with the can and a lighter she approached Pairama.
“She lit the lighter up and then, ah, sprayed it towards the lighter … then it burnt her underneath, her body parts.”
Winter also directed the makeshift blow-torch at Pairama’s chest.
The witness said Pairama was untied and left to lie on the floor. Winter covered her with a sheet.
The witness said Winter was angry at Pairama and claimed Pairama had somehow been involved in an assault on her. Winter told Pairama: “Karma is a bitch” and asked her how she wanted to die.
She said Winter gave Pairama an ultimatum: “If you don’t tell me, I’ll stab your throat.”
At one point she and Pairama were left alone, and she told Detective Peterson she suggested Pairama escape.
“She said she was too scared and Ashley [Winter] would get her again.”
Pairama chose hanging over stabbing and Winter ordered Te Amo to “get the rope ready”.
She said Winter told her to act as look-out in the living room, but she fell asleep.
“I woke up, and I saw Ashley come out… open that door and I saw her hanging … Once Ashley saw me looking she closed the door and said: ‘Don’t watch it’… something about me being too young.”
The witness said Winter initially wanted to burn the house down to destroy evidence. She later suggested Te Amo dig a hole under the house, but there was no shovel.
A tin shed in the backyard was also ruled out as being too small.
Pairama’s body was eventually found wrapped in a sheet and rubbish bags, inside a rusty steel drum in the backyard.
After finishing her statement, the teenager asked Detective Peterson. “So like, I’m not in trouble?”
The witness would go on to give two further interviews to the police before the Solicitor General took the rare step, granting her immunity from prosecution in exchange for giving truthful evidence for the Crown.
The trial, before Justice Kiri Tahana and a jury, has been set down for four weeks.
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