Amputee murdered lady he met online

Dean Mulligan. Photo / APN

Feilding amputee Dean Mulligan was last night found guilty of bludgeoning to death Wanganui woman Marice McGregor, whom he met on an internet dating site.

After deliberating for nearly five hours, the jury delivered its verdict in the High Court at Wanganui just before 8pm.

Justice Denis Clifford remanded Mulligan, who showed no emotion, in custody for sentencing on July 1.

As the verdict was announced, a quiet "yes" was heard from Mulligan's brother in the gallery.

In a statement read by Ms McGregor's cousin Martyn Burgess, the family said they were "delighted" with the outcome.

They had been subject to an anxious wait in the 14 months since she went missing.

The verdict brought to a close a murder case that began more than a year ago when Ms McGregor disappeared.

Mulligan, 44, a one-legged former computer technician, was accused of murdering the 45-year-old in April last year.

The Crown said he killed her with three blows to the head from an iron bar in a ravine off State Highway 4, 50km north of Wanganui.

A former friend of Mulligan, who attended his wedding about six months after he first spoke to her about Ms McGregor, last night told the Herald she was pleased the jury had come to a quick decision.

"Of course he did it. We all knew that," she said.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said Mulligan went to her about two years before he killed Ms McGregor, saying he had a friend who needed help.

He asked her to recommend counsellors for a woman named Marice or Katrina - both names used by Ms McGregor - who was depressed. He told her he had met Ms McGregor on the internet.

The woman said: "I just don't believe I went to his wedding and he was still seeing her. That's really bad. I feel so bad for his wife. I just hope she's okay."

The woman said she was appalled at Mulligan's attempts to convince the jury he had not killed Ms McGregor.

"He tried to pull the wool, but it didn't work. You could tell that it was all fabricated.

"I'm certainly pleased he's been found guilty. It won't bring Marice back, though."

During the trial, Crown prosecutor Lance Rowe told the jury that Mulligan "has taken us all for fools, gullible and lacking in common sense".

He had concocted five versions of events that led to Ms McGregor's slaying on April 19 last year.

Mr Rowe said Mulligan had three powerful motives for murdering Ms McGregor:

* She was about to expose their liaison to his wife.

* She was asking for repayment of money she had loaned him during their 18-month relationship.

* He believed he was going to inherit her house and other assets.

Of Mulligan's five versions of what happened, number four was closest to the truth. That was when he confessed to police that he got into a rage and struck Ms McGregor.

Mulligan's lawyer, Stephen Ross, likened the case to a quilt with loose threads.

"Pull one and the quilt begins to unravel."

The first thread of reasonable doubt was the suggestion that Mulligan danced around on rocks at the bottom of a steep ravine, and struck Ms McGregor with an iron bar.

This was ludicrous, he said, as Mulligan was a one-legged man.

Mr Ross said the picture of Ms McGregor presented by the Crown was completely different from the one that the defence had painted - of a manipulative woman who talked dirty and arranged sexual encounters on an internet dating site.

COUNTDOWN

2010

April 28: Wanganui woman Marice McGregor reported missing after she is out of contact for more than a week.

May 12: Ms McGregor's body is found in a ravine north of Wanganui by a police dive squad. An autopsy reveals head injuries.

May 25: Amputee Dean Richard Mulligan, of Feilding, hands himself into police and is charged with murder.

2011

May 27: Murder trial begins in High Court at Wanganui.

Last night: Mulligan found guilty of murdering Ms McGregor.