As Tony Ellis made a desperate 111 call pleading for help, his paranoid schizophrenic son stalked him and then bludgeoned him to death, a jury in the High Court at Auckland heard yesterday.
In his opening address, the Crown Solicitor for Auckland, Simon Moore, read part of the transcript of the tape of the telephone call, describing it as "terrifying stuff - the stuff of horror movies".
Mr Ellis' son, Paul Holden Ellis, a 35-year-old toolmaker, is accused of his father's murder.
But psychiatrists for both the prosecution and defence agree he was legally insane when he beat his father to death with a baseball bat at his Kaukapakapa home on October 26 last year.
Mr Moore said Ellis' mental condition so distorted his perception that he did not understand that his actions were morally wrong.
However, Mr Moore, appearing with Louise Freyer, said that ultimately it was a matter for the jury to determine.
The jury heard that two weeks before the killing, Ellis, of Maraetai, had been taken into the South Auckland mental health unit, Tiaho Mai, by the Community Assessment and Treatment Team (Catt) but released the same day on the orders of a district court judge before his assessment was complete.
Mr Moore told the jury that just before midnight on October 25, 68-year-old Mr Ellis made a desperate call to the emergency services.
He said his son, who was under mental care, was not in his right mind and wanted to kill him.
His son had told him to get a gun because he was going to kill him. He had locked his son outside but he could easily smash his way in.
Mr Ellis told the 111 operator that he had armed himself with a baseball bat for protection.
Then, to his horror, Mr Ellis called out that his son had got inside through the unlocked back door.
Some of the dialogue between the two was picked up by the police recording equipment.
Ellis is understood to be telling his father to shoot him, but Mr Ellis says: "I'm not going to shoot you, Paul. That would be the last thing that I would do. What would I want to shoot you for?"
Then Ellis' voice is heard for the first time.
"It's either you or me. Go get your gun. It's either you or me."
Mr Moore told the jury that in the background Mr Ellis was imploring his son to think of his mother.
Then there were screams and a banging noise, followed, Mr Moore said, by a "terrifying silence" broken by the sound of a metal baseball bat falling to the floor.
When armed police arrived at the isolated home 10 minutes afterwards it was too late to help Mr Ellis, who died three hours later in Auckland Hospital.
Ellis told police he had told his father to put the bat down, there was a heated argument and he then picked up the bat and struck his father three times in the head.
Ellis had suffered delusional episodes in the past, the court heard, believing his parents were trying to poison him and that they were putting bugs in his home.
In July last year his behaviour became increasingly bizarre - people were trying to get inside his head, he could see angels, and he believed he was Superman and able to control the weather. He was the Saviour and God was dead.
Mr Moore said the dead man had been trying to get help for his son and on October 12 called in the Catt team, who admitted him to the mental health unit.
But Mr Moore said he was apparently discharged the same day.
Cross-examined by Ellis' lawyer, Stuart Grieve, QC, the officer in charge of the case, Detective Sergeant Scott Beard, said Ellis had been admitted to the unit on October 12.
The officer confirmed that Ellis was released later that day after applying to a visiting district court judge for the compulsory holding order to be reviewed.
Mr Beard told Mr Grieve that he had examined the unit's records.
He agreed with Mr Grieve that one of the reasons Ellis was discharged on the same day was that the doctor responsible did not have the time to assess him properly because of the application, which was being heard that morning by the visiting judge.
Ellis' mother, Victoria Ellis, told the court that later her son was "quite chipper, particularly as he had a certificate to say he was sane".
In his opening address to the jury, Mr Grieve, appearing with Steve Cullen, said it was a case of a father being needlessly killed by a son who was seriously mentally ill.
111 phone call details son's fatal bat attack
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