Two men accused of plotting to kidnap Wellington businessman Bill Trotter also schemed to kill Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, one of them told a jury yesterday.
In the High Court at Wellington, Upper Hutt lawyer John Arthur Burrett said all the schemes were games.
Burrett, 53, and his nephew and godson Matthew Norman Payne, 22, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kidnap to hold for ransom, or with intent to confine, and having a sawn-off shotgun.
The Crown alleges they planned to put Mr Trotter in a plywood box buried in a reserve.
Burrett said the trial, now in its sixth week, was about one issue.
"Did we agree to set out to kidnap someone or did we set out to play what turned out to be a very public and stupid game?"
The court was hushed while Burrett gave evidence of his early life in England and war games he played in West Germany.
He said he was taught at a young age not to waste life.
"And up till July 22 [the date of his arrest last year] I was having a good life and a fun life."
He said that about two years ago, he and Payne began talking about how a ransom could be collected and decided it was virtually impossible.
Later they discussed the way buried boxes were used for army command posts in the field.
"Matthew was excited about that notion and within a few days we were having discussions about putting a box in the ground."
Burrett said he specialised in resource management law and in 1999 made a pre-tax profit of $321,000.
He and Payne thought and played alike.
They discussed at length how to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and switched their attention to Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"We did not need to say to each other at any stage, 'Oh, by the way, this is a game'."
- NZPA
Accused lawyer tells of 'game' kidnap plots
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